Bulgaria proves that it takes a global village to fend off a bully

The story is one that could provide a template for other countries, writes Borzou Daragahi

When Bulgaria decided to wholeheartedly back its allies in Nato and fellow European Union members in opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin reacted with fury (AFP/Getty)

Bulgaria was in trouble. The country was about to be crushed by a punishing Russian cutoff in gas taken in response to Sofia’s decision to abide by Western sanctions on Moscow. But over the course of the following weeks, an extraordinary coming together of world powers helped the country survive.

The narrative, chronicled in a report last week in the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeiner Zeitung by journalist Michael Martens, provides a blueprint for how the world community can come together to combat bullying by Russia.

When Bulgaria decided to wholeheartedly back its allies in Nato and fellow European Union members in opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian president Vladimir Putin reacted with fury. Bulgaria was the one EU and Nato member in which the Kremlin had built up genuine soft power. Russia and its operatives had seized control of segments of the country’s political establishment, as well as key segments of real estate, media, finance, telecommunications and the all-important energy sector. According to several studies, it has been the European nation most tightly in the Kremlin’s hands.