ABSTRACT
The Russian economic influence in Bulgaria has been at the highest and most visible among the nine countries analyzed in this book. It is not surprising that a couple of months before Bulgaria’s accession to the EU in 2007, the Russian Ambassador to Brussels, Vladimir Chizhov, said “Bulgaria would be Russia’s Trojan horse in the EU,” only adding the he meant it “in a good sense.” Evidence suggests that Russia has been able to leverage its role as the main energy supplier to capture state-owned companies, public institutions, and influential members of the economic and political elites in Bulgaria. Russia’s main levers of economic influence in Bulgaria have been the country’s energy dependence and the large Russian-controlled corporate footprint. To amplify its economic influence, Russia has supported political parties, has deployed a range of soft power instruments, acquiring critical energy sector companies. Moscow has sought to exploit governance deficits and the lack of strong institutional memory in the country, to yield geopolitical pressure to attain its strategic goals in Southeast Europe.
