Author: Ivaylo Noyzi Tsvetkov
How is the judicial reform going? And let's recall some basic things - how does it relate to the notorious fight against corruption and organized crime?
Yovo Nikolov: It's not going. Simply because the judicial system has become part of organized crime over the years. Journalistic revelations from recent years, and not only them, prove it. In 2010, I conducted an investigation into three magistrates from the Supreme Judicial Council and a district prosecutor who had fraudulently acquired properties on the seashore in Primorsko. They were punished with a reduction in their salaries for 3 months, and then they were restored. Then I revealed how a former member of the Supreme Judicial Council and then a judge in the Supreme Administrative Court had dinner with a person convicted in the first instance for fraud under a European program. I even testified before the Ethics Commission of the Supreme Judicial Council, where I was summoned. In the end - nothing. The revelations of the Anti-Corruption Fund that prosecutors had stolen kilograms of gold from material evidence during an investigation in the parking lot of the Specialized Court are an emanation of the mafia-like judicial system. Thieves are the lowest level of crime.
We cannot help but recall the explosion in front of the car of former Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev and the statements of his successor that he fears for his life. If you remember, the great advantage of the Corleone family in "The Godfather" was not firepower, but its connections with prosecutors, judges and senators. In fact, this is precisely the basis of the conflict with the other families in the novel and in the film.
Bulgaria is currently increasingly resembling Italy in the 1980s, when public, economic and domestic political life was governed by the mafia and the P2 lodge. As Assoc. Prof. Iva Pushkarova says, either lustration or a revolution in the judicial system is needed for reform.
Who is the new Pepi Euroto or the new ones? You are still working with very "sensitive" information.
Yovo Nikolov: There is no one heir, just as Pepi Euroto or Martin Bojanov-Notarius are not the only "brokers" in the judicial system. If they were the only ones, then judicial reform would be very easy. There are many people who keep magistrates dependent or corrupt them. But the biggest "brokers" in the judicial system, they are actually politicians who in many ways control justice.
Can you explain in five sentences how the state both created the big criminals and became a kind of partner with them?
Yovo Nikolov: It is a myth that the state and State Security created them. I have researched the biographies of most of the leaders of criminal groups. They became such at least 5-10 years before the advent of democracy, I have read enough documents from State Security on the issue in the Commission on Files. They simply very skillfully took advantage of the opportunities of democracy, and the state did not hinder them, in other cases it negotiated with them, in still others it used them. Some of them were killed because they did not assess the scale and remained at the neighborhood level. The combinatorics not only survived, but also became a factor in the Bulgarian economy. But the big turning point was in 2009, when Borisov won the elections. During his rule, the big criminal players were integrated into the state, it was given to them "on concession". Paradoxically, but money from Europe played an important role in establishing the oligarchy. I am not sure whether these processes would have happened without Borisov, but it was during his rule that this model was implemented in politics.
In 2013, he accepted the experience of Dogan and his "padawan" Peevski that you need to own the prosecutor's office and the media to be impunity - and that's how Italy of the 1980s turned out. A mafia state.
The scumbags quickly realized that politics is more profitable than drug trafficking. Bulgarian organized crime uses something very simple - that there are places to control and which create a natural monopoly. I call them "narrow places", there is no way to get around them. That is, with very little financial resources you get a monopoly. These "places" are given away by the state. For example, the parking lots in Sofia. Murders were committed to control them. The next step is concessions - during Borisov's rule, all the beaches in Bulgaria were given for 20 years to visagers, sikagers and teamers. And Bulgaria has a multiple amount - 390 km of beaches. This is money from sand and water. Then the quarries for inert materials - gravel, sand, stone, etc., infrastructure projects are controlled by such figures. Without them, highways cannot be built. Again for 20 years to come. The "Kapitan Andreevo" border checkpoint - the busiest border crossing from Asia to Europe - was given to Taki on a concession. That's why Kiril Petkov's government fell, for example, because he wanted to return it to the state. The curious thing is that thanks to the corrupt judicial system, the Visadjis received compensation because the state had expelled them from there and they had suffered property damage. But this conversation is quite long, it doesn't fit in five sentences.
How do you see Rumen Radev's new government? Does it dismantle the so-called "Borisov-Peevski model", which is actually far from being associated only with them?
Yovo Nikolov: I will use the cliché - it's too early to say. But judging by the first appointments, and the biographies of some of the people in Radev's team, I strongly doubt that this model will be dismantled. There is no way this will happen. Precisely because, as you say, this model is not limited to Borisov and Peevski - it has become part of the DNA of the state.
The scandal with the illegal city in the area of "Baba Alino" near Varna is an emanation of this model. A dubious businessman who pours tens of millions of euros into an illegal project. There is not a single issued document there. How do you risk such financial resources if you are not sure that you will receive a "certificate of tolerance"? Apparently he had people behind him who guaranteed him that the institutions would legalize this outrage. There is no innocent state and municipal structure there.
In 1998, the joke of the great satirists from The Onion came out as a "newspaper" headline - – "Drugs Win Drug War", i.e. drugs win the war on drugs. It is clear that no war with them is victorious, especially Nixon's in 1971 and Duterte's last in the Philippines, but what can be done? Do you share the view that the only option is investment in prevention?
Yovo Nikolov: Prevention is not the only option, but it is a mandatory method for reducing the spread of drugs. Currently, prevention in Bulgaria is at zero level – a handful of enthusiasts are absolutely selflessly fighting drug addiction. Knowledge about new designer drugs is severely lacking. There is a wonderful book by Razum Daskalov, who in my opinion is the person in Bulgaria who knows the most about drugs, called "Drugs – Tradition and Change". It should be mandatory for teachers and doctors. Yulia Georgieva from the Center for Humane Practices and their "Pink House" – day center for people with opioid addiction - is absolutely selfless in the field of drug prevention. But it is one, the state does not help it with anything. Because if demand is reduced, supply will also be reduced, as is known. Otherwise, there is no force option in Bulgaria to fight drugs. The reason is again corruption - 20 years ago it was revealed that the borders of the drug dealers' districts in the capital, for example, coincide with the borders of the district police departments. You can imagine why.
What do you think about the legalization of soft drugs, as well as drugs for medical purposes?
Yovo Nikolov: I am firmly in favor of the legalization of soft drugs, as well as drugs for medical purposes. With the obligatory clarification that I have no relation to them. Marijuana has proven its positive effect on the human body. Apart from that, it is an extremely useful industrial plant and was grown in Bulgaria until the middle of the last century, and much earlier.
I think that the criminalization of a single dose has turned thousands of young people into victims of police and judicial arbitrariness. It has been scientifically proven that increasing the penalties for a given crime does not affect its prevention at all. With a sense of humor, I will say that the police are of the same opinion, because they did the impossible not to test them for drugs before work.
And now something more personal: when did you fear for your life the most?
Yovo Nikolov: Oh, I've had many conflicting, let's call them euphemistic, situations with the bad guys. I knew most of the leaders of the power groups, I've talked to them many times. They wanted to blow me up because of what I write. They threatened to dig me under the "Spartak" swimming pool - twice, to beat me up, I negotiated in a Bavarian house in German, I've received messages to be careful what I write - from cops and people from the services, I hid with friends, for which I thank them, because I put them in danger too, they stood behind me, they protected me until it passed - it's complicated.
I served two years in Zvezdets, it was a combat unit, part of the so-called "triangle of death". I've endured all kinds of bullying and military nonsense. I've reported on four wars - in Bosnia, Kosovo, the bombings in Belgrade, etc. It's not easy to scare me. And then we were young and immortal. "Fear eats the soul", as was the title of Fassbinder's 1974 film.
But the hardest thing for me was when, after one of my investigations into illegal construction in Seal Bay near Sozopol, after I refused a bribe of 10,000 leva from the offender - a gambling boss - not to write about the case, he activated the entire repressive machine of the state - the prosecutor's office, the National Revenue Agency, the National Crime Agency, lies in the brown media, everything you can think of. Four years of my life were spent in legal battles, nerves, insomnia, but I proved myself right. Investigative journalism is a lonely and risky occupation, without any financial benefits.
The mafia works like this: first it tries to buy you off and if it can't intimidate you, it uses the state against you.
Is it your fault that you have already moved from investigative journalism to the role of an analyst?
Yovo Nikolov: A person is drawn to the plots, and there is also fatigue. For years I slept with a radio station that scanned police frequencies in those years, I arrived at the crime scene before the police. It is quite stressful - there is no day and night. 24/7.
I entered the role of an analyst by necessity - at a time when politics could not be explained in political science terms or ideologies. Because the second and third plans are more important than the facade. That is. All the experience, knowledge and background that I had gained in the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century found their application in explaining what is happening in the economy and society and how politics is done in Bulgaria. Because the players are the same, only the scale is larger. And the principle is "follow the money".
A person has obligations to the truth and to his children against all those paid "analysts" who irradiate with the supports of those in power and go around the TV.
These are things that I rarely say, because I think that when a person has taken up some work for the benefit of society, he should not concern himself with society. But who knows, maybe people should still know about the sacrifices that someone makes. Because of the brown mass that is poured on it.
How do you avoid boredom?
Yovo Nikolov: I will paraphrase a verse by Lyubomir Levchev - "The sea is love, everything else is boredom". In the original it is "drought".
And finally - my favorite question: what did I forget to ask you?
Yovo Nikolov: How will we protect ourselves from the thief of our labor, artificial intelligence. Because we failed against the other thief - Google.