17:23: In Bulgaria, Russophiles celebrate Putin
Kalinka’s song, Russian flags and T-shirts with the image of Putin: the war in Ukraine did not shake the convictions of Bulgarian Russophiles, gathered in the center of the country on Sunday in a festive atmosphere. In this poor Balkan state, which joined NATO in 2004 and the EU in 2007, many inhabitants, nostalgic for the communist regime, still look to the East.
Hristo Ganev, a 60-year-old driver, arrived at the scene early in the morning. At the stalls selling all sorts of Russian goods, from caps to teacups, he bought a T-shirt decorated with the Ukrainian offensive “Z”, with the design of the teeth of an armed soldier. “Without Russia, Bulgaria would not have existed,” he says, referring in particular to the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, which ended five centuries of Ottoman rule.
Married to a Russian he met while working in Siberia in the late 1980s, this imposing man defends the politics of President Vladimir Putin, convinced that he is “fighting Nazism”. He even declares himself “in favor of a nuclear war, if that is the price to pay to free oneself from American domination”. Almost half of Bulgarians still believe that Russia is not responsible for the current situation and many are opposed to the delivery of weapons to Kiev, according to a Eurobarometer survey conducted in April.
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