Comment by Emilia Milcheva:
"Tell me who finances your campaign and I will tell you who you are." In politics, this weighs more than the classic question about friends. Although the circle of friends is also important - with appropriate efforts, it can be transformed into a party. However, the path of money is the common thread: it does not lead to ideology, but reveals much more than the party's underwear - the true identity of the formation.
Politician Rumen Radev does not even say the name of his future party and his associates, let alone who the businessmen are who finance the project. Of course, the usual explanation about civic donations is expected, after all, so many people have asked him to form a party. But hardly anyone would believe such claims.
Somewhere, money is being paid for an office, for the press center that sends out messages, for hiring people to build structures in places, for election rallies, treats, cars, fuel, flyers, social media specialists, for marketing campaigns, printing materials, websites and domains, event logistics, training for activists, for software and hardware, as well as for those who left the presidential institution with Radev.
Whose money is it?
“Whose money is it” is a question no less important than “Whose Crimea is it”. On bTV, the leader of “Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria” (DSB), part of “Democratic Bulgaria”, Gen. Atanas Atanasov commented that it would be good for Radev to specify which oligarchy he wants to fight. “One of the most serious followers who participated in the launch of Rumen Radev in the political space is Georgi Gergov. He has been a privatizer since the beginning of the transition and an honorary consul of Russia in Bulgaria. Is Gergov an oligarch? Separately, two former vice presidents of “Multigroup“ - Stoyan Denchev and Nikolay Valkanov, were awarded the “Stara Planina” order by Radev. Are they oligarchs?”
On social networks, calls have become frequent for the former president to name the oligarchs he will fight. So far, he has not said a single name. That is, it should be understood that in principle he is against oligarchy, against the model in which extremely rich people exercise extremely great power and control countries, instead of democratic institutions. But at the same time, if other rich people are donating and financing his campaign, are they oligarchs or just businessmen who support the new political player?
It is speculated that Radev has good contacts with the arms lobby. The only name known is the owner of EMKO, Emilian Gebrev, whose gunpowder plant project was blocked two years ago. On the eve of Rumen Radev's election campaign for the first presidential term in 2016, the leader of “Movement 21” Tatyana Doncheva said on Nova TV that Radev was nominated for BSP president by a “business circle connected to the arms lobby, which must settle the accounts of the Socialist Party”.
Financial channels are kept secret
Rumen Radev and his team had nine years to come up with the concept, organize the people and the financing. In 2009, Boyko Borisov and Tsvetan Tsvetanov launched the version that they had mortgaged their homes to take out loans of 440 thousand leva (about 225,000 euros) from a major Bulgarian bank, with which to finance GERB’s first election campaign. (Parties receive subsidies if they win at least 1% of the vote, and for each valid ballot the amount is 4.10 euros.) However, the former president keeps even the name of the party a secret, and does not say a word about the channels through which it is financed.
The only businessmen who "dared" to announce support for Radev are Vasil Vassilev, whose son Slavi Vassilev is running as a candidate for deputy, and Vasil Bozhkov. But Bozhkov has nothing more to lose after his gambling business and his collection of rhytons were taken from him. And just days after Radev took his first presidential oath in January 2017, the former majority owner of the bankrupt Corporate Bank Tsvetan Vassilev gave an interview in Serbia and called on Radev to “cleanse Bulgaria of the mafia.”
The Dark Zone
But even if it does not declare itself publicly, big business is flexible and knows how to quickly redirect attention (and its money) to the new winners in politics. This is how it diversifies risks. However, until it becomes clear who the businessmen behind Radev are, the money remains the dark zone of the project. Financial opacity raises doubts.
The battle with the oligarchy does not begin with slogans, but with names. When the names of those against whom the war will supposedly be fought, and those who will pay the bill, are missing, one is left with the feeling that it is not about dismantling a model, but about rearranging it. Don't let it turn out that “my oligarchs are better than their oligarchs”.
Following Plato, the old regime is destroyed by what it values most, and in the case of the oligarchy, this is wealth. Greed and the neglect of everything else in the name of accumulating money ultimately destroy it. Whether the Bulgarian oligarchy has accumulated enough to launch the program of destruction is not an abstract question, but a task for politicians.
An important geopolitical question
The question of “whose money“ is not only domestically political, but also geopolitical. When financing is opaque, any external interpretation finds ground. “Washington is ours. Chisinau is ours. Sofia is ours…”. This was written by Alexander Dugin, the leader of the Eurasian movement in Russia, after the presidential elections in November 2016, when Trump won his first term in the United States, Igor Dodon, who is close to Moscow, won in Moldova, and Rumen Radev, who was seen as a potential Kremlin ally, became the president of Bulgaria.
So light, more light on political financing.