Radev hit a new low.
I understand that he has sympathy for the Kremlin. I also understand his political line - more pressure on Ukraine, more concessions to Moscow, more verbal “diplomacy“ with the Kremlin, while he doesn't dare to say a word to Putin.
But I don't understand how he uses his position at the head of the state to lobby Russian theses so primitively and present them as a Bulgarian national interest.
Yesterday at the Euronews Defence and Space Summit he didn't just warn about the Russian nuclear risk, that Europe must kneel before Russia - such are his factory settings. He placed the Russian nuclear threat at the heart of his argument against continued European support for Ukraine and called for a change in approach to Moscow. While Russia brutally attacks Ukraine and Putin refuses any move towards peace, including an energy truce, after the German Foreign Minister met with Lavrov precisely to prove to everyone that there is no point in such meetings, Radev, as if in some spiritual trance, repeats - we must keep the channels open to Moscow.
And then I ask myself - why didn't he go, why didn't he take the initiative, to visit Moscow, to talk to Putin. And the answer is because he will not be able to bear the consequences of the collapse of his encounter with reality and, above all, of his public expression.
This is precisely the moment when the Russian nuclear threat must be neutralized as an instrument of political blackmail, and not turned into an argument for European retreat.
Moreover, at the same forum, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said something completely different - there is no immediate threat to NATO territory and the Alliance will not succumb to Moscow's nuclear threats.
Radev, however, is doing exactly the opposite.
He is reinforcing the Kremlin's fulcrum that if Europe continues to help Ukraine, a nuclear catastrophe will follow.
And this is not the only Russian fulcrum that is beginning to appear in his speech. The ominous suggestion of the upcoming “hard winter“ is already being superimposed in the public space for Ukraine, while Russia systematically attacks Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Just yesterday, Russian strikes caused new power outages in Kiev.
And all this is presented in some unthinkable peak of political perversity simultaneously as:
a/ protection of the Bulgarian national interest;
b/ care for the Ukrainians;
c/ some peculiar, almost messianic diplomacy of peace.
And the effect is exactly the opposite - the Kremlin's political theses receive an additional platform from the prime minister of an EU and NATO country.
To our great regret, we must also admit something else.
Borisov nevertheless maintained some decency and balance in his relations with Moscow. He could be ambiguous, he could maneuver, but he understood the limitations of Bulgaria's membership in the EU and NATO.
With Radev, there are no such internal brakes.
Before, there was double talk - one in the West, another in our country.
Now it is clear that only the internal pro-Kremlin version remains.
And here for me is the bigger question.
I am not so afraid of Galab Donevtsi and the next minister.
I am afraid of the people who shape the president's strategic worldview.
Of Ivo Hristovtsi and the influence of this type of thinking on Radev.
Something like a guru and a student.
You can also see the change itself.
From a person who carefully maintained a certain decorum and left the door open for different interpretations, Radev has gradually become a politician who speaks more and more openly through the Russian geopolitical framework.
Russia does not need an agent network if its theses can be pronounced from the highest level of an EU and NATO member state.
And therefore the question is no longer just what Radev thinks.
The question is what kind of Bulgaria this policy will leave behind.
On October 25, Bulgarians will make their choice. Andrey Gyurov and Georgi Kandev are the officially registered presidential candidate pair for the elections.
For me, the stake is simple - for Bulgaria to remain in its European and Euro-Atlantic orbit and not be turned into a country in the gray zone between Europe and the Kremlin.
I appeal to everyone who has voted for democratic forces over the years, for the pro-European choice of Bulgaria.
We have reached the Rubicon - there is simply no room for hesitation - Radev is an existential threat to Bulgaria. Even greater than Videnov - simply the greatest for the entire transition, because he has power and is obsessed with an assigned Mission.
He represents Russia more than Bulgaria in Europe.