site.btaOpposition Alleges Sofia Tried to Influence UK Sanctions List

Bozhidar Bozhanov, MP from the opposition We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC–DB), said that Sofia had tried to influence a UK sanctions list targeting Bulgarian individuals when Mariya Gabriel (GERB) was foreign minister in 2023–24. “We have information that Mariya Gabriel, in her then capacity as Bulgaria’s foreign minister and representative of the GERB party, tried to lobby the United Kingdom to remove individuals from its sanctions list,” he said.

Speaking to reporters in Parliament, Bozhanov added that it remains unclear whether such efforts are still being made.

Fellow CC–DB MP Ivaylo Mirchev quoted former justice minister and senior party figure Hristo Ivanov as telling him that MRF–New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski had personally sought to be removed from the U.S. Magnitsky sanctions list. Mirchev further alleged that GERB leader Boyko Borissov had personally been lobbying “anyone connected to the U.S.” to help get Peevski off the list.

Delyan Peevski was designated by the United States under the Global Magnitsky Act in 2021 for corruption and influence peddling. He is challenging the designation in a U.S. court, with his lawyers arguing that there is no evidence of wrongdoing. In 2023, the United Kingdom also sanctioned Peevski for his alleged involvement “in attempts to exert control over key institutions and sectors in Bulgarian society through bribery and the use of his media empire.”