Frustrated leftists and disaffected rightists see a standard-bearer in the Russian president

The Complicated Charm of Mr. Putin

by Boyko Vassilev

Nobody was prepared for such an opening.

The guests on a recent edition of Bulgarian National TV’s debating program Referendumincluded politicians and experts. The most vocal among them was the leader of the nationalist Ataka (Attack) party, Volen Siderov. Yet suddenly, it was the ruling Socialists’ representative, Nikolay Malinov, who made the headlines.

“I’d like to congratulate all Orthodox Slavs around the world on winning the Third Crimean War,” Malinov’s first words were, “and remind them that in history the Balkans come next, in the southern direction.”

Malinov, a Socialist member of parliament, publisher of the party newspaper Duma, graduate of a Kyiv university, chairman of parliament’s Bulgaria-Russia Friendship Group, and president of the influential Russofili organization, made little effort to clarify his baffling statement.

History records just one Crimean War, so at least one is missing. If Orthodox Slavs are the victors in “the third one,” who is the loser? Surely not Ukrainians – they are also Orthodox Slavs. And why do the “Balkans come next”? The Crimean War of 1853-1856 was followed by the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, which liberated Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire. But whom will Bulgaria be liberated from now? The EU? NATO? Other Bulgarians?

This small confusion points to a bigger one. Malinov’s party has a problem. Its leader, Sergei Stanishev, presides over the Party of European Socialists, so it has to subscribe to the common EU stand against the Crimean takeover.

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