Inside Bulgaria's Easter Celebrations: Traditions Passed Through Generations
Today marks the joyous celebration of Easter, one of the most significant holidays in the Orthodox Christian calendar.
It should be of great concern in the West that Bulgaria is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's targets as he is trying to "reassemble as much of the former Soviet Union as he can," the WSJ said on Sunday.
Bulgaria has moved "fitfully" toward democratization and a free market and has held decisive elections over the past decades, but Russia is now "working hard to take over the country," an article published by the Wall Street Journal and authored by Gary MacDougal reads.
Mr MacDougal is the co-Chairman of the America for Bulgaria Foundation, which spends millions into anti-corruption, education and development programs every year.
President Putin has many reasons to eye Bulgaria and act with no need for the developments that were triggered in Ukraine, since the country was Moscow's most faithful ally during the Soviet era, older Bulgarians speak Russian and both languages use a Cyrillic script.
Dependence on Russian gas is also described as a key factor, and a move by Moscow to stop the gas flow in winter "commands the hearts and minds of Bulgarians", the WSJ notes, also citing reports that Russia was behind environmentalists' successful efforts to secure a ban on oil and gas fracking in 2012.
Developments at now collapsed Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB) after a bank run last year point to the need of "much stronger legal and institutional oversight by regulators and the judiciary".
An "information war" is being fought in the oligarch-dominated media in an attempt to discredit the West and Western-leaning leaders, the WSJ says, though no particular outlet is cited as an example.
Along with President Rosen Pleveniev, who is worried what he calls Moscow's "aggression" is like a "Trojan horse" attempt by Russia to penetrate NATO, a senior officials from the alliance shared the same concerns with the author himself. The latter concludes that Putin "doesn't always have to send troops when he wants to call the shots."
The full article is available here.
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Brazen Bulgarian gangs "terrorise the elderly and rob them over their life savings with increasingly aggressive phone scams nettling millions of euros," according to an AFP story.
The prospect of US President Donald Trump's moving closer to Russia has scrambled the strategy of "balancing East and West" used for decades by countries like Bulgaria, the New York Times says.
Bulgarians have benefited a lot from their EU membership, with incomes rising and Brussels overseeing politicians, according to a New York Times piece.
German businesses prefer to trade with Bulgaria rather than invest into the country, an article on DW Bulgaria's website argues.
The truth about Bulgaria and Moldova's presidential elections is "more complicated" and should not be reduced to pro-Russian candidates winning, the Economist says.
President-elect Rumen Radev "struck a chord with voters by attacking the status quo and stressing issues like national security and migration," AFP agency writes after the presidential vote on Sunday.
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