site.btaBulgarian Antarctic Expedition Head: The Presence of BTA’s Press Club in Antarctica Confirms This Part of the World as Truly Bulgarian

Speaking on the occasion of the second anniversary of the opening of BTA’s press club on Livingston Island, the head of the Bulgarian Antarctic expeditions, Prof. Christo Pimpirev, said: “With the presence of BTA’s press club in Antarctica, we confirm that this part of the world is truly Bulgarian.”

“All Bulgarian polar researchers at the base, as well as the foreign scientists who work with us, benefit greatly from the existence of a BTA press club. Thanks to the new laboratory block, the container that had previously been adapted as a laboratory is now used entirely to meet the needs of BTA correspondents, as well as anyone writing reports at the base, including foreigners,” Prof. Pimpirev said.

“Thanks to BTA’s press club in Antarctica, news from Bulgaria's St Kliment Ohridski Antarctic base reaches Bulgarians and the world in real time,” the base commander, Kamen Nedkov, said.

On February 9, 2024, BTA opened a National Press Club at the Bulgarian Antarctic base on Livingston Island. Attending the event were BTA Director General Kiril Valchev; Bulgaria’s Ambassador to Argentina, Stoyan Mihaylov; the head of the Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition, Prof. Pimpirev; and Varna Naval Academy’s Fleet Admiral Boyan Mednikarov.

On Monday, researchers and logistics personnel were scheduled to disembark from the research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) to the base, but their transfer was postponed due to strong winds and waves.

A working meeting was held on board RSV 421 between Fleet Admiral Mednikarov and Prof. Miroslav Tsvetkov, on the one hand, and the scientists carrying out research projects from the ship during the 34th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition, on the other. “Let us think about the future. Let us think about how we can work together,” Admiral Mednikarov said in concluding the meeting.

German researchers Prof. Emil Stanev and Michel Albinos also had the opportunity to carry out an initial analysis of data from a study conducted in recent days from the ship in the Antarctic Sound. They told BTA that the Antarctic Sound remains poorly studied, but is believed to play an important role in the exchange and mixing of cold and warmer water masses under the influence of tides and eddy currents.

The Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) departed for Antarctica from Varna (on the Black Sea) on November 7, 2025. After a month-long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, the ship arrived at the Argentine naval base in Mar del Plata on December 13.

BTA has had a national press club on board the ship since 2022 and another on Livingston Island since February 2024. BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said they exist thanks to the generous support of RSV 421 and Bulgaria’s St Kliment Ohridski Base, which provide the necessary facilities. These two press clubs are added to the news agency’s other 41 national press clubs (33 in Bulgaria, seven abroad in neighbouring countries and in nations with large Bulgarian communities, and one mobile National Book Press Club). 

The news items of BTA's special correspondents on RSV 421 and Antarctica are freely available in Bulgarian and English on the agency's website. They can be used free of charge by all media, with attribution to BTA.