site.btaMedia Review: February 10

As on Monday, Tuesday’s news media are dominated by reports and speculation about the latest developments around the Petrohan case – six violent deaths that occurred between February 1 and 8 in Northwestern Bulgaria.

PETROHAN CASE

The 24 Chasa tabloid daily frontpages an article on the Petrohan case involving six violent deaths in Northwestern Bulgaria with the deceased being linked to the NPACA nongovernmental organization. On February 2, three men were found shot dead in a privately owned lodge near Petrohan Pass in the Western Balkan Range. On February 8, two men and a 15-year-old boy, all of whom had occupied the lodge, were found dead with gunshot wounds in a camper van in a hard-to-reach mountain area on Okolchitsa Peak. Without citing specific sources, the frontpage article in 24 Chasa claims that Ivaylo Kalushev, one of the deceased and believed to have been the leader of NPACA, was a hypnotherapist “connected to extra-terrestrials” who in real life owned 21 properties. The article says that Kalushev was a certified hypnotherapist with extensive experience in past-life regression and deep-trance therapy, having conducted more than 8,000 sessions. According to 24 Chasa, he also had experience in Central American shamanism, was skilled in the use of visionary energy plants, and was highly proficient in various divination practices.

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On February 9, the prosecuting magistracy and the Interior Ministry held a news conference. At the news conference, journalists were shown video footage from cameras in front of the Petrohan lodge, timed between 10 a.m. and 4:20 p.m. on February 1. Some of the deceased can be seen there talking, bidding farewell to the head of the NGO, and setting fire to part of the building after the rest have left in a camper van. The head of the organization is detected on four cameras en route from a village near Montana to the approach to the Okolchitsa Peak.

Commenting on the footage in a bTV interview, Milen Ivanov, former deputy rector of the Interior Ministry’s Academy, said that many of the conspiracy theories that have emerged around the Petrohan case have gone in the wrong direction. According to him, investigators are aware of the mechanism by which the crimes were committed, but the issue of motive remains unresolved.

“This is the key question – why all of this happened. You cannot draw conclusions about people’s behaviour based on just a few frames,” Ivanov said. “Yesterday’s news conference, instead of largely putting an end to speculation and interpretations, actually intensified them. Isolated clips from a single day in these people’s lives were taken, and on that basis, conclusions are being drawn that they were saying goodbye, that they were about to set the lodge on fire and commit suicide. That is absurd. You cannot make such conclusions.”

“Every person is free to read and interpret things as they wish, and to believe in any philosophy or religion. There is nothing criminal in that,” Ivanov added. “The real question is whether certain practices go beyond the boundaries of what is normal and whether they turn into criminal influence by group leaders over their followers. This is where the State Agency for National Security should step in and should already have had a clear assessment in its files as to whether this constitutes a crime or merely a legitimate philosophical movement,” he concluded.

The Trud tabloid daily also publishes Ivanov’s interview with bTV.

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Online news outlet Capital.bg has published an extensive analysis of the Petrohan case. According to the article, the prosecution and the police are treating the case as one of group suicide or murder followed by suicide. The authorities explained that this is the main working version of events. They base this on three video clips from a camera outside the lodge, as well as on forensic and ballistic examinations, Capital.bg summarizes.

The authorities broke their official silence only a week after the deaths at the Petrohan lodge and a day after Ivaylo Kalushev’s camper was found near Okolchitsa Peak. A key question at the news conference was whether the group had been involved in paedophilia, as claimed a week earlier by Borislav Sarafov, who is unlawfully acting as Prosecutor General, Capital.bg writes. According to representatives of the prosecution, there had been one report about a child in distress, but it was not confirmed. No other signals of paedophilia were received or investigated.

Here is what else Capital.bg reports:

“The prosecution and the police refer to three video clips from a camera located at one of the lodge’s entrances. The other cameras inside did not survive the fire, nor did the DVR device that stored the recordings.

In the first clip, recorded at 10:08 on February 1, Ivaylo Kalushev, the owner of the Petrohan lodge and described as the leader of the informal community around it, is seen saying goodbye to the three people who were later found dead outside the lodge – Ivaylo Ivanov, Plamen Statev and Decho Vasilev. The four men embrace. Visible in the frame are Kalushev’s camper, in which he himself was found dead on Sunday, and a fifth person whom the prosecution identifies as 15-year-old Alexander Makulev. The clip is 12 seconds long.

The main hypothesis is built on the second clip, which lasts 1 minute and 11 seconds and was recorded at 16:21 the same day. It shows only Ivanov, Statev and Vasilev, with a dog moving around them. One of them says, ‘Shall we go?’ and they all laugh. Then the following phrases are heard: ‘They won’t stay…,’ ‘It was an honour for me…,’ ‘A true honour,’ ‘We’ll see each other in…,’ ‘In a better way,’ and ‘Thank you for everything.’ From the audio, which is of poor quality because of the wind and the running dog, it can be assumed that some of the people in the conversation are crying.

The third recording lasts eight seconds and was made at 20:44 on the same day. According to the authorities, it shows the fire already burning as the three men enter the lodge. An expert report showed that the fire started due to the ignition of fuel and pellets that had additionally been soaked with an accelerant, the local fire chief said.”

According to Capital.bg, the police did not give a meaningful answer as to what is visible in the footage between the recordings. Although Ivanov, Statev and Vasilev are seen saying goodbye in the second clip at 16:21, in the third clip at 20:44 they are clearly still alive. At the news conference, it was explained that there had been movement between the clips, but that video-technical examinations were still under way, involving six experts. Forensic medicine has difficulty determining the exact time of death because the bodies were outdoors and temperatures were very low.

Additionally, without stating directly that it was suicide, the police said that the shots that killed Ivanov, Statev and Vasilev were fired either at point-blank range or from very close distance. The exact wording used by Alexander Alexandrov, head of Forensic Medicine at Aleksandrovska Hospital, was “at point-blank range or from very close distance, convenient for one’s own hand,” which implies suicide. He refused to provide further details. It also became clear that the DNA found on the weapon belonged only to the victims, Capital.bg reports.

Two pistols and one rifle were found near the bodies. During the news conference it was revealed that there were not three shell casings but four, and that one of the bodies contained two bullets. This suggests that at least one of the deceased fired at another victim, regardless of whether this was with consent or not. No foreign DNA was found on the firearms. An alternative explanation is that one of the weapons had a double-shot function, the outlet adds.

Information about the other three deceased – Ivaylo Kalushev, Nikolay Zlatkov and the minor Alex Makulev – is scarcer, because they were found only on Sunday near Okolchitsa Peak. The peak is known as the place of death of the revolutionary and poet Hristo Botev, whose poem Struggle Kalushev shared on February 1 at 16:07. By that time, Kalushev had already left the lodge in the direction of Okolchitsa Peak.

In Kalushev’s camper, a revolver and a pistol were found. Police say there are no signs of outside interference or of a struggle, but Makulev’s hands were intertwined and he was in a kneeling position. The expert examinations related to the Okolchitsa case are still not ready.

The big question that the news conference failed to answer is what led to the alleged suicides or killings, Capital.bg concludes.

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In an interview with Bulgarian National Television, Rosen Yordanov, former Deputy Director of the Interior Ministry’s Institute of Psychology and a criminal psychologist, shared his views on Ivaylo Kalushev, describing him as “a man with severe narcissistic problems who led his entourage, influencing them through various practices, to a lethal end”.

“A narcissistic person decided that he controls cosmic forces and can influence others. I cannot say that he was insane – we are talking about something different. The desire for total devotion, selectiveness, restriction of contacts, strong influence over parents – rather, the impression remains that society was forbidding him something that was not accepted,” Yordanov said on national television.

The criminal psychologist praised all those involved in the news conference held by the prosecuting magistracy and the Interior Ministry, saying the information had been presented to the public in an appropriate and sufficient manner. “That is why I did not give interviews for an entire week, because I knew something would happen – and it did. You can see that at the moment when the deaths of the second group of three people were confirmed, shortly afterward a news conference was held. And here I want to commend everyone involved, because it was a news conference with the participation of all relevant institutions, and information was provided,” he said.

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Nova TV aired an interview with Ralitsa Asenova, who says she is the mother of 22-year-old Nikolay Zlatkov, whose body was found on February 8 near Okolchitsa Peak. Asenova said she has no definitive explanation for the tragedy but shared her own assumptions. She stressed that her decision to speak now was driven by a desire to prevent her words from being distorted. “I went and gave testimony voluntarily as early as Wednesday. I was the first person to cooperate with the police. I want to speak because for a week now there has been a torrent of vile accusations against people who cannot defend themselves. We have victims, and from the very first day horrifying insinuations began,” she said.

Asenova firmly rejected claims that relatives had not cooperated with the investigation, as well as allegations that there were automatic weapons and criminal activity at the lodge. “There are no automatic weapons in that lodge. That is a blatant lie. I have been in every room, in every space,” she said. “There were paintball guns because they had built a paintball field. There were sports bows. Is that what you call combat weaponry?” Asenova asked. According to her, all weapons were legal and had permits. “Anyone who has been in that lodge can confirm this,” she added.

Asenova also dismissed the theory of psychological pressure within the group. “About a month ago I was there for two days. I spent some of the best days of my life with these people. It was the most harmonious environment you can imagine – we cooked, watched films, talked,” she said.

She also raised the issue of speculation about four off-road vehicles allegedly seen in the Petrohan area before the killings. “I want to inform the entire Bulgarian public: those six people did not have four off-road vehicles. Those are not their cars,” she said.

Asenova emphasized that all claims about a sect, religious influence, or mandatory spiritual rituals are completely false and not based on any facts. “No mandatory practices – of any kind. I don’t know why all this is being poured onto people who cannot defend themselves. They can no longer speak,” Asenova added.

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In an interview with NOVA, Kiril Borisov, a crime reporter for the 24 Chasa tabloid daily, said that the facts presented so far by the Interior Ministry and the prosecution clearly point to a scenario of ritual suicide or murder followed by suicide within the context of a closed religious community with sect-like characteristics. “All the collected data point precisely in that direction. For rationally minded people, there is no serious doubt about the case. The other, much bigger problem is that society does not trust the institutions,” Borisov commented.

Referring to the interview with Ralitsa Asenova, the mother of Nikolay Zlatkov, the journalist expressed his condolences to the families of the victims. According to him, it will be extremely difficult for the families to accept the facts and the idea that their loved ones made the fatal decision themselves, under the influence of their spiritual leader, Ivaylo Kalushev.

Taking part in the discussion with Borisov on Nova TV, national security expert Ivan Anchev stressed that he does not have inside information from the investigation and does not wish to put forward hypotheses. However, he was categorical that there is a serious breakdown in communication between institutions and society. “The triple murder at the Petrohan lodge is, in itself, an extremely grave criminal act and naturally triggered a strong public reaction. At the same time, the state remained almost completely silent, justifying this with the ongoing investigation,” Anchev said.

According to him, if the available information had been presented clearly and in an understandable manner at the time, it might have been possible to prevent the subsequent tragic events and the loss of three more human lives.

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24 Chasa and Trud have more articles on the topic.

POLITICS

In an interview with Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), political scientist Atanas Radev said that what is about to happen is strategic from the perspective of President Iliana Iotova’s future political career. “At the moment, she is in a very difficult situation, given that there has to be a caretaker government that can somewhat calm the situation, but at the same time it also has to be a caretaker cabinet that opens space for dialogue and for the emergence of [former] president Rumen Radev’s political project. For me, it is crucial which options can give her the opportunity, on the one hand, to assert her independence and, on the other, to demonstrate her role and approach in managing this crisis. In Bulgaria, the model is such that through a caretaker cabinet the president plays a very active role in mediating between different parliamentary groups and institutions. This is what we are seeing in Ms Iotova’s behaviour. She is restoring parliamentary logic to the country’s political processes,” Atanas Radev commented.

According to the political scientist, one option is for the President to appoint Andrey Gurov as caretaker prime minister. The other option would be to choose one of the female candidates, Radev said, pointing to Margarita Nikolova, whom he described as less politically identified.

“Gurov was leader of the CC-DB parliamentary group. He was the only one who said he would work for fair and transparent elections,” the political scientist recalled. In his view, the key question is whether Iotova is willing to make enemies, as this will also determine which political parties she will work with. “This may be an attempt to form a caretaker government that can more or less defuse the situation,” Radev said, stressing that the role of such a government is not limited to organizing early elections.

It is very important for Iotova what she does at the start of the election campaign, the political scientist added: “For her, it is crucial not to begin her campaign with unnecessary conflicts. If the aim is to support the bloc that Rumen Radev is trying to form, she should choose Andrey Gurov. But if the goal is to calm the situation, she would more likely opt for one of the deputy heads of the National Audit Office.”

President Radev is not silent, but he is very cautious, Atanas Radev said, noting that this has always been his style. “Now it is extremely challenging, when the aura of the head of State falls away, to reformat and step into the role of a party leader – that is a very difficult transition,” he concluded.

CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX

Bulgaria has recorded a record-low score in the Corruption Perceptions Index 2025, falling to 40 out of a possible 100 points this year. The country ranks 84th out of 182 countries and territories, marking its worst result since 2012, according to the annual index published on the website of Transparency International.

The report states that over the past two years alone, Bulgaria’s score has deteriorated by five points - a statistically significant change that demonstrates the impact of the lack of decisive action against kleptocratic networks, years of superficial anti-corruption efforts, growing attacks on civil society, and the repercussions of the first partially annulled elections in the country’s modern democratic history. The closure of the Anti-Corruption Commission and delays in appointing leadership to key regulatory bodies have further exacerbated problems related to governance and accountability.

Mediapool.bg, Dnevnik.bg, StandartNews, among other online news outlets cover the topic thoroughly.