According to data from the PISA tests, over half of Bulgarian students are functionally illiterate, with reading illiteracy observed among 53% of Bulgarian youth. The same is true of mathematical illiteracy. This is not only a personal misfortune for these children and their parents, but a heavy sentence for the Bulgarian people, as well as an indicator of our impending national catastrophe.
This is what Prof. Mikhail Konstantinov writes for the newspaper "Trud".
With these data, it is not surprising that many Bulgarian politicians are illiterate. Elementary proof is some actions on the current topic of late: what is the "Magnitsky" act and does it have a basis in our country? These actions are frankly stupid. Thus, some of the Bulgarian politicians and even ministers either cannot read, or they can, but with misunderstanding. Such people should work with the printed word carefully and take notes. It is also noble to have it explained to them, although this is an almost hopeless task. I personally write this material slowly, so that they may understand me.
Now a few facts. The “Magnitsky“ Act is an extrajudicial American document imposing sanctions on people and organizations that, according to the Americans, violate human rights and/or are associated with corrupt practices. Such people and their relatives cannot visit the USA and cannot have accounts in American banks. The “Magnitsky“ Act has no direct effect on the territory of the European Union, and Bulgaria is a member of this union. Hence, this act is not directly in force in Bulgaria. The EU has its own sanctions regime, adopted by Decision 2020/1999 and Regulation 2020/1998. This regime is imposed solely and exclusively for serious human rights violations such as genocide, slavery, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests (!) etc.
So far, sanctions under this regime are not known to have been imposed on citizens and organizations from the EU and, God forbid, may it remain so. However, I can think of some arbitrary arrests in our country, including those of a former prime minister (B. B.) and a former finance minister (V. G.). For this, former prime minister Kiril Petkov and his interior minister Boyko Rashkov, who ordered the arrests, could (and still can!) fall under European sanctions and embarrass Bulgaria for the last time. However, there are foreign individuals and legal entities sanctioned under the European regulation, for example from Russia, Belarus, Syria, China, North Korea and Iran. At the same time, there are none from the EU, as we said.
Bulgaria has its own case law on the subject of “Magnitsky“. In 2021, the caretaker government with Prime Minister Stefan Yanev and the interior minister, the communist investigator Boyko Rashkov had intensified his efforts to introduce illegal practices like "Magnitsky". He had also begun to make "Belene" type sanctions lists, which are the favorites of this type of investigators, so the Supreme Administrative Court had to categorically quell this Komsomol fervor with two decisions of five-member panels. In short, the "Magnitsky" act does not work in Bulgaria. Thus, a clear distinction was made between the international influence of American sanctions and the formal operation of law in the Bulgarian legal system. I understand that this topic is difficult, but I appeal to at least some effort to make it understood by some otherwise vocal, smart and beautiful commentators.
Similarly and very recently, the current Minister of Internal Affairs Ivan Demerdzhiev went wild again to introduce "Magnitsky" in our country. I do not know if this person has read the decisions of the Supreme Administrative Court on the topic from 2022, but I advise him to take them and read them as many times as he needs to, to include this process and some degree of understanding.