On October 2, 1996, one of the key figures of the Bulgarian transition, Andrei Lukanov, was murdered. He was considered the gray cardinal in the then ruling BSP, pointed out as the conduit of Russia's interests in energy and the father of the transition in the economy.
Andrey Lukanov was shot on October 2, 1996 with 4 bullets in front of his home at 15 “Latinka“ Street.
On the day of the murder, around 9:15 - 9:20 a.m., the former prime minister left his home and headed to his personal car “Peugeot 306“, parked about 15 m. from the entrance. His driver was waiting for him in the car. Lukanov gets into the car, but realizes he has forgotten something. He gets out of the car, approaches the intercom system and tries to contact his wife. During this time
The killer shoots 4 times, from a distance of 1.5 - 2.5 meters with a “Makarov“ pistol.
A bullet hits his right temple, and another 3 - in the back. The ex-prime minister falls to the ground, and the killer disappears.
On the day of the assassination attempt, the clothes of the alleged killer, with which he disguised himself as a vagrant, were found and thrown away at the same place. The gun, which is believed to have been used in the murder, was found only 40 days later behind a radiator on the landing between the floors of a residential building on the neighboring street "Dimcho Debelyanov".
Alexander Rusov, Alexey Kichatov, Georgi Georgiev, Angel Vassilev and Yuriy Lenev were arrested and convicted for the murder. Their sentences were later overturned. The murder remains unsolved.
Immediately after the death of the former prime minister, many different versions appeared in the press - from an assassination attempt by the "energy mafia" to domestic reasons.
This is the last major political assassination in our history.
Andrei Lukanov is the 40th Bulgarian prime minister and the seventh to be assassinated. Indeed, by the time he was shot, he had already passed the zenith of his political career, but his death nevertheless shook Bulgaria. After the communists' crackdown on the parliamentary opposition in 1947-1948, Andrey Lukanov was the first Bulgarian MP to be killed.
On October 2, 1996, Lukanov broke with his usual habits. Usually in the morning, he would call the gas company "Topenergzhi" from home to have a bodyguard come and pick him up in a car. Lukanov had appointed his old acquaintance Nikolay Nikolaev as the head of security there, and although the politician was no longer on the board of directors of "Topenergzhi", Nikolaev's company continued to protect him.
On that fateful day, however, Lukanov went out in front of his house on "Latinka" Street 15 alone.
Andrey Lukanov cries in a hospital in Moscow on September 26, 1938.
His parents emigrated to the former USSR after the September Uprising. His grandfather Todor was one of the leaders of the Bulgarian Communist Party, a deputy since 1913, and his father Carlo (named after Karl Marx) was an interbrigadist in Spain and a responsible official of the Comintern.
After September 9, 1944, Carlo Lukanov returned to Bulgaria and rose to the position of Foreign Minister and Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers. This helped his son's political career. Andrey Lukanov followed in his father's footsteps in the executive branch, and along party lines entered the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party. He remained its candidate member for ten years – until November 10, 1989, the day of the great reshuffle in the leadership of the Bulgarian Communist Party.
This was due to Andrey Lukanov's zeal to improve himself - he received a good education, learned languages, established personal contacts with foreign politicians.
Together with Petar Mladenov and Georgi Atanasov, Andrey Lukanov was the engine of change. After overthrowing Todor Zhivkov, who had ruled as a dictator for 33 years, they began to dismantle the totalitarian communist system. In the house of his neighbors at “Latinka” 15
Lukanov met with representatives of the emerging opposition.
The Bulgarian Communist Party gave up its monopoly on power and in 1990 the first free elections were held after World War II. The communists, who had already changed their name to socialists, again won an absolute majority in them. Andrey Lukanov became prime minister. He supported the nascent private business - in a short time, private enterprises, insurance companies and even banks were established in Bulgaria.
During this period, Andrey Lukanov was one of the most popular figures in Bulgaria, but his star soon began to fade. He was attacked by both his political opponents and hardliners in his own party. A man of compromise, Lukanov insisted on a broad coalition government. When the opposition refused to cooperate with him, he resigned from the cabinet, although the parliamentary majority allowed him to govern. This was seen as a challenge by part of his party. Former dictator Todor Zhivkov accused him of being Moscow's ear in the party leadership and of being responsible for Bulgaria's colossal foreign debt as head of foreign trade.
The opposition also attributes many sins to him. The main accusation is that Lukanov transformed the political power of the Communist Party into economic power. In addition, he is blamed for the emergence of the groups.
In 1992, Lukanov again united the party around himself,
but now as a victim. After the elections in October 1991, the UDF came to power and with a majority removed the parliamentary immunity of the former prime minister. He was even detained in the custody of “Razvigor“. After the fall of Prime Minister Filip Dimitrov from power in December 1992, Lukanov was released.
In December 1994, the BSP again won an absolute majority, but Lukanov did not even become a minister. In 1995, he announced that he was retiring from politics and devoting himself to business. He was elected head of the newly established Russian-Bulgarian gas company "Topenergji". The opposition accuses the company of wanting to monopolize not only the supply of Russian gas, but also the gas transmission network of Bulgaria. The new Prime Minister and leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) Zhan Videnov accuses Lukanov of not giving up power, but of wanting to perpetuate himself in it through natural gas.
Videnov achieves a tactical victory by managing to remove his opponent from the leadership of "Topenergji". Unfortunately, his economic policy undermines his rule. An economic crisis is raging in the country, which the government is unable to cope with. Inflation reaches almost a thousand percent in one year. The ruling party splits - Lukanov demands the resignation of the cabinet, and Videnov considers this to be desertion. Lukanov manages to impose his protégé Georgi Pirinski as the socialist candidate in the upcoming presidential elections.
The shootings at 15 “Latinka” Street are just a few days away.