Comment by Emi Baruch:
"The activities of George Soros' foundations pose a danger to the constitutional order and security of the state."
"It is no coincidence that they should be banned, and their programs should be considered a violation of the law."
"These institutions, their teams and beneficiaries are foreign agents, pests, subversives. They fall into the category of undesirable organizations and all partnerships with them are subject to criminal sanctions."
No, this does not apply to Bulgaria, where, at the suggestion of Delyan Peevski, a parliamentary commission was established to investigate the activities of Soros and his foundations. This applies to Putin's Russia.
In Russia before Putin, Soros' foundations had an active presence: they financed educational, cultural and scientific projects, school programs, university grants, libraries, publications and academic partnerships.
In Putin's time, “foreign agents“ appeared.
But in 2012, the Law on “foreign agents” was introduced in Russia, and its scope was further expanded in 2022. All this time, the Russian prosecutor's office and the Federation Council have been constantly filling the official lists of undesirable organizations and activities that are already officially banned.
Why are we talking about Russia? Because the coincidence between Mr. Peevski's motives and Putin's policy is a real revelation. Unlike previous maneuvers of the “unfairly” (according to Borisov) sanctioned for corruption under the “Magnitsky” law; politician, who recited Euro-Atlantic values, trying to mask whose interests he serves - the tasks from Moscow are carried out without any detours, even without disguise.
The company DPS-Peevski, “Vazrazhdane”, BSP, ITN, MECH, “Velichye” plus a few more wanderers is the same one that would stand behind the failed (for now) draft law on foreign agents, which “Vazrazhdane” several times tries to push through. “Sorosoids” are the generalized image of all “foreign agents”.
They were called “tumors, liberals, yellow-collar workers, rootless, impostors, grant-givers”. And from the highest rostrum, slanders were spread about “traitors caught in the tentacles of billionaire Soros”.
And just as the texts proposed in the “Vazrazhdane” draft law on “foreign agents”, which were almost verbatim copied from Russia, so too the arguments for the creation of a “Temporary Commission to Establish Facts and Circumstances Related to the Activities of Soros - Father and Son and Their Foundations in Bulgaria”, seem to be inspired by Russian rhetoric. And not only that. Because it reminds us of the years in which, through a quick procedure or even without a procedure, people were sent to Belene, who were claimed to be “embedded foreign agents” with “clear influence on the processes in the country” and that they “create a threat to the legal order” and are “directed against the national interests and security of the people”.
Efforts to create a civil society in Bulgaria
The “Open Society” Institute was established with a donation from George Soros after the political changes in Bulgaria, which coincided with the emergence of many civil and non-governmental organizations. It was at this time that the slow awakening of Bulgarian society, which had no knowledge of public policy management, began.
If one were to list all the programs created and supported by “Open Society“, the list would be long - a legal program, European policies, training mechanisms for financing social initiatives, mentoring programs and scholarships, health and educational initiatives for Roma communities, a program for access to information and protection of civil rights, projects for media sustainability, for combating hate speech, support for independent media, monitoring of conditions in police detention centers, support for academic research and research initiatives…. It is long.
The activities of the “Open Society“ Institute, which is about to celebrate its 35th anniversary, could cover volumes. And no matter how detailed the work is described, the narrative will not be able to encompass all the efforts made to create civil society in Bulgaria, to structure it, to form leaders, so that civil society becomes a factor in protecting democratic changes and European values.
Who is trying to close the open society? The answer is brutally obvious.
An open society implies transparency, accountability, pluralism, and this is a threat to the power structures and their corrupt practices. Moreover, an open society allows civil society to independently determine its future. And - albeit slowly, albeit painfully, albeit inconsistently - to escape the influence of the Kremlin and its Bulgarian proxies.
It is time not only to comment on the institutions that are suspected of being dependent on Delyan Peevski, but also to seek an answer to the question of whose pawn Peevski himself could be. Whose instructions does he possibly carry out and to whom does he report. Because it is obvious that this man did not create himself, nor is he self-sufficient…