Veselin Stoynev's comment:
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen toured 7 countries from the “frontline” to Ukraine, but only in Bulgaria was her plane's GPS navigation jammed. Interior Minister Daniel Mitov is categorical that this is not a cyberattack, but he does not believe the claims from Moscow that they have nothing to do with each other, because cyber-jamming has been going on since the beginning of the war.
The threat from Russia and Bulgaria's illogical behavior
However, in Bulgaria, which Russia has declared an enemy country, the share of people who believe that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a threat to the security of the EU, and three years after its beginning, is the lowest (although it covers over half of the population), and a similar majority considers Russia, if not an ally, then at least a necessary partner of the EU (according to research by Eurobarometer and, respectively, the European Council on Foreign Policy).
And this same Bulgaria, according to Ursula von der Leyen's admission, provided one third of the ammunition for Ukraine at the beginning of the war. We have earned billions from the sale of ammunition, but then we also missed serious opportunities to upgrade our armed forces for free with NATO weapons, by handing over obsolete Soviet military equipment to Ukraine. Unlike other countries, we benefited minimally - with a surprising compensation of 348 million leva from Denmark - for the over 100 armored personnel carriers donated to Kiev.
Now at least we will most likely be able to benefit from a large German investment and a super-profitable loan under the European Union's SAFE program for a large-scale gunpowder plant near Sopot. How can you not spin some dirt on this former candidate for the 16th Soviet republic, which is shaping up to be an even more significant ammunition arsenal for the enemies of Putin's imperialism? Moreover, Bulgaria does not care about GPS jamming and is not among the 13 EU countries that in June requested common European measures against these hybrid Russian attacks in a letter to the EC.
What is DANS actually doing
However, regardless of what exactly happened to the EC President's plane, the incident became world news, and in our country it once again raised the question of our internal security and what counterintelligence - DANS - is actually doing to counteract Russian hybrid attacks. The acting chairman of DANS, Denyo Denev, whom President Rumen Radev refused to appoint as the head, is in the crosshairs. But what can be expected from the State Security Agency, when Delyan Peevski, considered the patron of its interim boss, from a driving force of arms aid to Ukraine in one day around the election of the new American president, turned 180 degrees?
And when the leader of the Socialists and former Minister of Economy Kornelia Ninova swore at the beginning of the war that she did not allow a single cartridge to go to Ukraine (to this day she is suing and threatening to sue anyone who claims the opposite), and her successor, Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Zafirov, will attend a parade in China together with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un, while his Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov is talking to the President of the EC about European defense investments turned to the East.
The main problem is inside the country
However, the main challenge to Bulgaria's security is not from outside, but from within. When society, governments and security institutions are at odds between East and West, national security is at a risk of temporary tilting of the power balance - more in one direction or more in the other. And the balance becomes even more complicated when sharp geopolitical repositionings of key factors are added, as is happening in the USA under the new American administration.
With this gap, there is no possibility for a broad public consensus on a purely pragmatic basis for investments in defense and security as a means of economic growth and modernization. Just as Bulgarian politicians were unable to explain well to the people that we are not giving away ammunition and weapons, but are profiting from this bloody war, that the euro is not a threat, but many more opportunities for development, so they probably will not be able to explain now that large-scale investments in the military industry, with fresh foreign money and almost free and almost non-maturity European loans are a serious chance not only for some employed in these industries, but for all of us to live a little better.
What kind of country is Bulgaria
Only countries that are fully aware that they have no one to rely on except themselves and their closest allies, and that there must be a sound consensus and long-term policies on this issue, can think about security in itself as a basic prerequisite for a good life. But these countries are not stagnant, they do not wait for a covenant, and they do not revolve according to the wind, surviving at the mercy of fate.