site.btaMedia Review: August 7

FOREIGN RELATIONS

It is possible that the Bulgarian arms industry is supplying ammunition and weapons to Russia, says Tihomir Bezlov, chief expert for the Security Program at Sofia’s Center for the Study of Democracy, speaking in a video of the news website SegaBG.com. Bezlov says: “If you go through the list of the Interministerial Commission for Export Control and Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, one of the things you notice is that in addition to exporting to Western and Eastern European countries, which are buying large quantities [from Bulgaria] for Ukraine, there are also the old markets: Algeria, Morocco, the Middle East countries, India and Vietnam. One of the accusations made by various investigating experts is that these countries are reselling our products to Russia.” Bezlov adds: “It is absolutely possible that Bulgarian military supplies are used from both sides of the frontline in Ukraine.”

According to him, many of the older leaders at the Bulgarian military plants are pro-Russian. Since a large portion of their output goes to Ukraine, they find comfort in the thought that, ultimately, they are supplying to Russia too.

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Public figures, intellectuals and members of the general public have urged the Bulgarian state to take an adequate stance on “the genocide in Gaza” in an open letter to the President, the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister, Duma reports in its main story. They insist that Bulgaria should condemn violations of international humanitarian law and uphold the Genocide Convention. The daily quotes former deputy foreign minister Lyubomir Kyuchukov as noting that the Bulgarian government recognized the State of Palestine in 1988. With its conduct, the diplomat says, the West shows that it is applying double standards, and Europe has been seriously affected. Kyuchukov argues that the criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy is not anti-Semitism, but rather a call to respect international law.

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The three-hour meeting between US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been described as useful and constructive, said BNT1, the main channel of Bulgarian National Television, during its morning talk show on Thursday. Sofia Security Forum President and former Bulgarian deputy defence minister Yordan Bozhilov told the show: “Russia will now try to position itself before Trump in a more positive light to make him change his attitude to Ukraine and the allies in NATO.” According to Bozhilov, the US envoy tried to avert possible reputation damage if Moscow gives a more hardline response to President Donald Trump’s ultimatum. “This is a new phase of the political game,” he commented.

Valeri Todorov, former longtime Moscow correspondent for various Bulgarian media, said on the same programme that Russia’s consent to hold negotiations with the President of Ukraine is a sign of progress.

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“Why a Superpower like Europe Surrenders to Trump,” caps an analysis in 24 Chasa, written by Georgi Angelov, senior economist at the Open Society Institute-Sofia. The author says that in the closing days of July, United States President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a trade deal between the two economic giants, the US and the EU. Some people instantly described the deal as Europe’s “surrender”, others referred to it as an “unavoidable evil” in an attempt to avert a trade war, and still others said it was the best that could be achieved. As diverse as these interpretations may seem, they are probably true all at once, Angelov says.

He notes that, overall, the EU-US deal is similar to other agreements announced in recent weeks. The introduction of a uniform tariff of 15%, which is not in addition to other tariffs but includes all other standard tariffs, makes little difference for most manufacturing industries. In fact, they were paying the same rates previously but had no security for the future. For the automotive sector, the improvement is significant, and the pharmaceuticals business is also taking a breath of relief. If there was no trade deal, the US would unilaterally impose a 30% tariff on Europe, and the EU would respond with counter-tariffs of a similar size and the situation would escalate abruptly. Even if Europe opted for a trade war, it would hardly be able to negotiate a tariff lower than 15%, the analysis goes.

From a pragmatic point of view, the EU achieved what it could under the circumstances, the author says. Still, the deal is, in a way, an instance of surrender on the part of Europe. Being a large economy and a large market is not enough in today’s geopolitical chaos. It helps if you have great military power and clear rules for making decisions. Eighty years after the end of World War II, Europe is still entirely dependent on the US in the field of defence. Political decisions are difficult to make when you have 27 countries, which, in many cases, have veto power and sometimes abuse it. Given the Russian war in Ukraine, Europe should know better than to engage in a trade war with America at this moment and risk Russian escalation and grave economic effects, the author says.

Over the long term, he says, Europe has no choice but to reform, invest more heavily in defence and boost its economic competitiveness. If the EU wants to be on a par with America and China, it cannot be dependent on America militarily and critically dependent on importing Chinese goods. Any dependence is weakness in today’s geopolitics, Angelov concludes.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to transform the world, but Europe is fooling around, Trud says in a signed comment. The author, Boyan Rashev, says that Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon have poured USD 300 billion into building AI database facilities over the last year, including USD 100 billion in the last quarter alone. In three months, these investments contributed to GDP growth in the United States more than economic consumption did. In doing so, the four companies added 7 GW of baseload electricity consumption over the last quarter. This would require an electricity output of seven reactors working non-stop, of the type currently functioning at Bulgaria’s Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant. Another 15 GW of baseload electricity consumption will have been added by the four giants in the United States alone by the same time next year, Rashev estimates.

Where will all that electrical power come from? Electricity production from coal-fired power plants in the US grew by 12% in the first half of 2025, and it is emerging as the main driver behind the expected new high record in global coal consumption this year. At the same time, these very four companies report almost zero investments in AI facilities in Europe due to extremely high energy costs resulting from an insane utopia of zero emissions and expensive emission allowances. But the plants are here, especially in such countries as Bulgaria and Germany. When will Europe have a political leadership that lives in the real world and possesses at least a modicum of common sense? – the author asks in conclusion.

ECONOMY

Some traders and producers have been hiking the prices of their products days before the planned entry into force of a ban on increasing prices unless warranted by objective economic factors, Trud says in its main story. The daily notes that the Introduction of the Euro in the Republic of Bulgaria Act has been amended to prohibit hiking retail prices in stores unfoundedly as of Friday, August 8, but the amendments have not been gazetted yet. President Rumen Radev decreed the promulgation of the changes on Wednesday. They can be published in the State Gazette on Friday, but it is also possible that the procedure will be delayed, the paper speculates. It says that the website Antispekula.bg has received many complaints from members of the public about prices going up ahead of August 8. According to economists, the only way for consumers to counteract the hikes is to refrain from buying the respective goods and using the services.

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“Communism Returns to Bulgaria with ‘People’s Store’,” caps a comment by historian Alexander Stoyanov, published on MediaPool.bg. The reference is to a Sofia-headquartered state-run company, called People’s Store, whose establishment was endorsed by the government on Wednesday. It will run a nationwide chain of retail outlets designed to ensure priority access to Bulgarian goods at affordable prices for consumers.

Stoyanov gives a point-by-point description of the emerging network. Looking into one of its aspects, the scholar says shopping in a state-owned store means that you pay for the same product multiple times. First, you pay your taxes to the government. The government takes some of your tax money and buys things to sell at the state-owned store. You go to the store and buy products which had been supplied with your tax money. That is to say, you pay for the product a second time. You pay 20% VAT on it (or whatever VAT rate they may enforce for this chain) – that is, your income is taxed again. Summing up, you pay tax to the government twice and buy the same product twice (once with a portion of your tax money, and another time with a portion of your salary). The government thus takes money from you four times.

And what does it mean “to reduce dependence on imported goods”? Nothing, Stoyanov says. Sadly, a huge part of the commodities consumed by Bulgarians at present were not made in Bulgaria. If the state-owned stores do not work with imported items, they will sell almost nothing, or they will offer brands you never heard of, the historian says.

CHILD ADOPTION

There are 872 children in Bulgaria waiting to be adopted, but almost half of them have some sort of disability, which greatly reduces their chances of finding a home where they can be raised in love, 24 Chasa says in its main story. Last year saw the adoption of 376 kids, and only 11 of them were with disabilities, the daily says, quoting a report by the Social Assistance Agency. People applying to adopt children numbered 1,555 at the end of last year, which was about double the number of children awaiting adoption. Therefore, it is not surprising that applicant families have to wait for years.

Georgi Bogdanov, Executive Director of the National Network for Children, tells the daily that psychologists should work with adoptive parents both before and after adoption. “Post-adoption monitoring is often just a formality without real therapeutic support and without sensitivity to the specific traumas that the kids may suffer,” Bogdanov says.