The Russian newspaper "Vzglyad" published the first-ever "Rating of Hostile Governments", which ranks countries according to the degree of their hostility towards Russia. In the ranking prepared by the editorial staff, Great Britain takes first place with an index of 75, followed by Germany and France with 70 points each. Bulgaria is placed in the last, tenth category, with an index of 25.
The rating assesses the actions of national governments — and not countries as a whole — on six criteria, including military-political activity against Russia, sanctions, diplomatic demarches, information warfare, restrictions on Russian business, and support for non-governmental organizations considered hostile by Moscow.
Russia introduced the category of "enemy countries" back in 2021 and expanded it in 2022, after the start of the war in Ukraine. At that time, Russia required these countries to pay for Russian gas in rubles — the "account in Gazprombank" mechanism — as a condition for continuing supplies.
Bulgaria refused to switch to payment in rubles and became one of the first countries to which "Gazprom" stopped gas supplies back in April 2022.
Since then, the country has been steadily appearing on various Russian official and unofficial lists as "unfriendly", which is also reflected in the current ranking of "Vzglyad".
According to "Vzglyad" in October 2025 the most unfriendly towards Russia are:
Great Britain (75)
Germany, France (70)
Netherlands, Estonia (65)
Latvia, USA, Czech Republic (55)
According to the editorial board, these countries "invest the most in the confrontation with Russia".
Average levels of hostility
In the middle of the table are:
Denmark, Italy, Canada, Lithuania, Poland, Finland and Sweden (50)
Belgium and Norway (45)
Greece, Spain and Croatia (40)
Portugal and Slovenia (35)
Hungary and Luxembourg (30)
Bulgaria - in the lowest category
Bulgaria is ranked in the tenth group (index 25) together with:
Austria
Ireland
Malta
New Zealand
Romania
According to the authors, this means that the country is among the governments with the "lowest level of unfriendliness" within the countries considered to be unfavorably disposed towards Russia.
"Unfriendly countries" or "unfriendly governments"
The publication notes a change in terminology introduced by Russian diplomacy in 2024-2025 — Moscow now speaks not of "unfriendly states", but of "unfriendly governments".
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov emphasized that this distinguishes the position of political elites from the attitude of the peoples, while President Vladimir Putin stated:
"We do not have hostile states, we have hostile elites."
How the index is calculated
According to "Vzglyad" the maximum score is 100 points.
Military-political actions: up to 30 points
Sanctions: 20 points
Diplomatic hostility: 15 points
Information warfare: 15 points
Discrimination against Russian business: 10 points
Support for NGOs considered hostile: 10 points
The index will be updated monthly, with countries being able to "increase or decrease" their scores depending on current political decisions.
Political scientist Alexei Nechaev, head of the "Politics" department in "Vzglyad", states that the rating aims to show "which countries are actually acting against Russia's interests and which are forced to follow allied pressure".
According to professor at St. Petersburg State University Stanislav Tkachenko, the ranking highlights differences within the EU that are often overlooked in the Russian public environment.
Political scientist Vadim Kozyulin expects France and Britain to compete for first place in the next update of the rating due to the recent agreement between Macron and Zelensky on the supply of 100 Rafale fighter jets to Ukraine.