Bulgaria's 'Octopus': PM's Fears Forced Me to Turn Politician

Politics » DOMESTIC | July 10, 2011, Sunday // 14:57
Bulgaria's 'Octopus': PM's Fears Forced Me to Turn Politician: Bulgaria's 'Octopus': PM's Fears Forced Me to Turn Politician Former DANS employee and controversial businessman Alexei Petrov is the newly announced presidential nominee of Initiative Committee "Unity and Team Work". Photo by BGNES

Fears of Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, gave me a main part on the Bulgarian political stage, the presidential hopeful, Aleksei Petrov, stated.

In an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio, BNR, Petrov, a shady businessman and a former employee of the State Agency for National Security (DANS), declared these same fears were the reason for his sensational arrest last year.

Petrov, dubbed the "Octopus" and the "Tractor," further pointed out he became dangerous to Borisov after he dared to oppose the latter's views on security and economy.

"I asked Borisov as early as the fall of 2009 to stop playing a police officer and focus on the economy. And now we live in a police State while the economy is on the brink of a disaster," the "Octopus" declared.

He appealed to everyone to call his and Dushana Zdravkova's presidential bid "their joint run," saying the two have united their effort, feel prepared and have the ambition and the resource to propose a new model that would lead to a better live for Bulgarians.

Petrov's statements came on the heels of contradicting reports Zdravkova will run as his Vice-President or on her own.

The "Octopus" further pointed out the rule of Borisov's Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, GERB, party has destroyed small and medium business in Bulgaria and broke the backbone of the country's economy while Zdravkova's resignation as judge has revealed that the backbone of the judicial system has also been broken.

Aleksei Petrov, a former employee of the State Agency for National Security (DANS), has figured prominently in Bulgaria's public life since 2008 when it was revealed he was an undercover agent, only for this information to be dismissed later as false.

Under the cabinet Borisov, on February 10, 2010, Petrov was arrested, in a widely publicized special police operation codenamed "Octopus." He was charged with racketeering, money laundering, abetting prostitution, trading in influence and drug trafficking, spent 9 months in jail and was released on house arrest and later on own recognizance.

Dushana Zdravkova is a former Member of the European Parliament (in 2007-2009) from GERB and one of the party's founders.

In June 2011, she resigned as judge at the Varna District Court in protest against what she termed the manipulated election of a Sofia City Court Chair and against the "attempts to subordinate the constitutionally independent judicial system to the executive power".

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Tags: Dushana, Zdravkova, Alexei, Petrov, GERB, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, Borisov, Octopus, Presidential elections, elections, DANS

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