Bulgaria torn between old friends and new partners over Crimea

SOFIA: Georgi Kadiev is, like many of his fellow Bulgarians, caught between Russia and the West.

A member of parliament with the ruling Socialist party, his government has gone along with sanctions on Moscow over its annexation of Crimea, but at the same time he feels the cultural and historical pull of Bulgaria’s long association with Russia.

“My father was an officer in the Soviet army,” he said. “He spent his life shoulder to shoulder with the Soviet army. It’s very hard to explain to him now that we should impose sanctions on Russia.”

Bulgaria has long been an anomaly in Europe, a country inside the European Union and the Nato military alliance, yet which feels close to Russia.

That tension has been thrown into even sharper relief by the stand-off over Ukraine, with many feeling under pressure to choose between Moscow and Brussels.

Bulgaria is now facing its sternest test of loyalty to the European Union since joining in 2007 and has not wavered, even though it risks economic hardship and a domestic backlash could topple Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski’s fragile coalition.

The danger for the government is that the nationalist Attack party - on whose support the Socialists rely to stay in power - could carry out a threat to withdraw their unofficial support if Sofia backs more EU sanctions against the Kremlin.

Bulgaria is highly vulnerable to the political fallout of the Crimea crisis compared to other countries formerly behind the Iron Curtain such as pro-Western Poland, or fellow 2007 EU entrant Romania, which had already begun to drift from Moscow in Communist times and is less hooked on Russian energy supplies.

Many former Communist countries in the EU kept ties to Moscow but most view Russia as a former occupier and still a threat. Bulgaria is different because it sees Moscow as a friend. When its economic and cultural ties are taken together, it is probably the EU state closest to Moscow. — Reuters