site.btaMedia Review: August 24

WILDFIRE THREAT

Trud's main story features forecasts from meteorologists and climatologists on the country's wildfire threat. It remains at highest level, with days of extreme phenomena set to continue into September, the paper says. Climatologist Georgi Rachev is quoted as saying that high temperatures combined with drought are expected. He identifies wind as the catalyst for the wildfires under current conditions, but at the same time points out that it is wind that will prevent the large fire burning in Alexandroupolis, Greece, from spreading north towards Bulgaria. Climatologist Simeon Matev adds that this year's heat wave will be longer and more intense than in 2022. Meteorologist Peter Yankov recommends discussing a ban on tourists entering forest areas, as was imposed in Greece, as 98% of fires are caused by human negligence. 

24 Chasa also covers the story, quoting Executive Forestry Agency Executive Director Stoyan Tashev. He notes that the wind in the country is currently northerly, keeping the Alexandroupolis fire in Greece.

PRIGOZHIN

The downing of the aircraft in which mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was presumed among the passengers, is not in many media outlets as news of it came too late on Wednesday.

There were comments by Defence Minister Todor Tagarev on bTV and investigative journalist Christo Grozev (Belingcat) on Nova TV on Thursday morning.

Tadarev believes that the plane was likely downed by an explosive planted inside it because a missile hit would have had a different effect. "I have no specific information in such a short time but what we know and what I know, following events in Russia in the past 20 years is how the KGB acts. Many Kremlin opponents have fallen from high buildings, drunk the wrong tea or get killed by bandits. An air crash is not something unique," said Tagarev. He does not expect the likely killing of Prigozhin to impact the Ukraine war. "Some of the Wagner mercenaries are now in the ranks of the Russian Armed Forces. Some are in Africa and some in Belarus." He believes it is little likely that they would organize themselves as stage a repeat mutiny as the one on June 24.

Hristo Grozev expects the Russian generals to stage a "new and better coup attempt" against President Putin after Prigozhin's demise. "Many generals are unhappy with how the war is playing out. They are restless after Prigozhin's killing. Among them is General Surovikin, who was fired several days ago, and after Prigozhin's coup attempt in June he was put under house arrest. These people are not going to sit back and relax for long," Grozev said on Nova TV. Some ten days ago the journalist told the Financial Times that either Prigozhin will be killed within a half year or there will be a new coup attempt, and now he told Nova that his expectation is based on the logic of political events in Russia. As for what caused the explosion in/on the plane, he said that it might have had a bomb inside or might have been hit by missiles. "We can expect the Russian propaganda machine to launch the version of the plane being targeted in a Ukrainian terrorist attack but that would not make much sense because if Ukraine could down Prigozhin's plane it would have done it when he was attacking the Ukrainian forces quite successfully," Grozev said. He also recalled Putin calling Prigozhin a traitor after the June mutiny. "Every time Putin calls somebody a traitor, there is an attempt against them afterwards," he added saying also that the Russian President had to liquidate the Wagner chief because he runs his country like one runs a drug cartel. "If you are a cartel boss and somebody challenges your authority, you are a nobody if you don't kill him."

POLITICS

Telegraph, Trud and 24 Chasa feature articles on the dismissal of Interior Ministry's Secretary General, Commissioner Petar Todorov, after Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov said on Wednesday that Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov had sent a request for Todorov's removal from office. Stoyanov blamed Todorov for the lack of organization in the Interior Ministry, pointing to examples of inaction by his Ministry's Secretary General related to various cases in recent months, Telegraph reports. The daily says that three names are being tipped for the position - that of current Deputy Secretary General Zhivko Kotsev, National Police General Directorate Director Atanas Ilkov and the acting head of the Border Police Anton Zlatanov.

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Telegraph reports that BSP and The Left! will coalition for the local elections in Sofia with a common candidate Vanya Grigorova. The left-wing coalition will include a total of more than 10 formations, the daily quotes BSP Sofia Chair Ivan Takov. Among their priorities will be the preservation of the Soviet Army Monument in the capital.

ECONOMICS

Duma writes that Council of Ministers opens a new tender procedure for oil and gas exploration in the Block 1-26 Khan Tervel, located in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea. The exploration permit is granted for a period of 5 years, with the right to 3 extensions of 2 years each.

24 Chasa and Trud also cover the story.

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Mediapool reports that so far only about a third of the country's gas needs for 2024 have been secured. Eleven months after last September's announcement of the tender for ten-year supplies of LNG to the future regasification terminal near the Greek city of Alexandroupolis, Bulgargaz is still negotiating the terms of the contract with the preferred seller. "Once the contract is signed, we will only be able to provide the name of the company and the term of the contract," Bulgargaz said in response to a Mediapool question. The media outlet notes that the start of the tender was given during the caretaker government of Galab Donev, with promises of full transparency made at the time. "At no stage of the procedure did the company give any information unless it was explicitly requested," the article states. Bulgargaz would not commit to a deadline for signing the contract and explained to Mediapool that negotiations with the selected buyer were being delayed to work out all the details. Market actors comment to Mediapool that such a long-running tender with conditions changed officially on two separate occasions and additional changes in the course of talks with the bidders is not something normal in the industry. They argue that this is the reason why global producers of liquefied gas such as the American Cheniere, the French Total and the Anglo-Dutch Shell withdrew from the tender. According to Mediapool's unofficial information, the preferred supplier is Italy's Eni.

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Duma has an article on the likelihood that fuel prices will rise if the oil refinery Lukoil Neftohim Burgas stops refining Russian oil. The government will decide whether to stop importing Russian oil after analyzing a report prepared by three ministries, the daily points out. If this happens, the price of fuel will rise by 20% per litre, says Svetoslav Benchev, a lawyer at the Bulgarian Oil and Gas Association. He adds that fuel prices in Bulgaria remain the lowest in Europe, being about BGN 1 more affordable compared to Greece, while in Romania they are BGN 0.10-0.19 higher.

In an interview for Telegraph, Benchev predicts that petrol and diesel prices will not exceed BGN 3 per litre in the coming weeks.

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Mediapool.bg runs an extensive interview with Transport Minister Georgi Gvozdeikov where he presents his vision about the development of the BDZ railway operator, Bulgarian Post AD and the Sofia Airport concession. The interview is headlined "Bulgarian Post Takes over the Servicing of the State Administration". The subheading says that the new Transport Ministry leadership hopes that BDZ will have new trains in 2024.

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The Bulgarian National Radio reported that the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) recommended Bulgaria to reimburse EUR 38 million and to not pay Sofia another EUR 92 million for a project to modernize the railway line between Kostenets and Septemvri. The reason is all sorts of irregularities in the implementation of the project, such as a lack of technical capacity of the approved contractors or misrepresentation of their financial capabilities. OLAF also refers to the ongoing investigation by the European Public Prosecution Office, which suspects misuse of EU funds and money laundering linked not only to the Kostenets - Septemvri line project, but also to the Orizovo - Mihaylovo railway line, the renovation of which is estimated at EUR 111 million.

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Trud quotes Economy Minister Bogdan Bogdanov as saying that the process for hiring foreign workers will be shortened as soon as possible. In an official meeting with him, representatives of employers' organisations expressed concernes that the legalisation of all documents needed to hire non-EU employees in Bulgaria takes on average between 4 and 6 months, while the same process in Poland is completed within a week. Data from the National Statistical Institute (NSI) show that 141,000 people have registered with the country's labour offices as unemployed since the beginning of the year, the newspaper adds. In the same period, 95,000 people have managed to find a new job.

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The new Road Infrastructure Agency Director, Yassen Yordanov, gave an interview on Bulgarian National Television's morning show. He explained that he is preparing structural changes in the Agency’s administration and pointed out that the Danube Bridge is in a critical condition and needs major repairs. “There is a technical project and it will be renovated soon. We have taken urgent measures to ensure the safety of travellers. The marginal cost of the repairs is about BGN 21 million, but it could be exceeded," Yordanov explained.

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Trud features an article on the Bulgarian National Bank's (BNB) monetary statistics for July, which states that over 40% of the country's GDP is held in banks by individuals. The annual growth of funds that Bulgarians keep in banks is 9.9%.

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Duma reports that the Council of Ministers approved an exception to the regulation introducing restrictive measures due to Russia's war on Ukraine, according to which the National Electric Power Company will be able to continue to carry out reconservation of the equipment supplied for units I and II of Belene NPP under the technical guidance of the manufacturer - the Russian company Atomstroyexport.

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Trud quotes an inspection of the National Revenue Agency, according to which traders widely do not issue receipts for the sale of souvenirs and food at fairs and festivals. Over the weekend, the inspectors checked outlets in the Plovdiv village of Iskra and at the folk costume festival in Zheravna. 27 violations were found - 10 in Iskra and 17 in Zheravna. In addition to the failure to issue a receipt, the violations were also related to the lack of a fiscal device and a discrepancy between the amounts marked on the cash register and the cash in the cash register.

24 Chasa and Duma also cover the story.

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Trud quotes an NSI survey on household incomes in Bulgaria in the second quarter of 2023. According to it, over 70% of Bulgarians find it difficult to cover their daily expenses. A total of 35.1% of respondents find it relatively difficult, 23.7% define covering their daily expenses as difficult, and 11.8% describe it as very difficult.

EDUCATION

In an extensive interview for 24 Chasa, Education and Science Committee Chair Krasimir Valchev commented on the state of the country's education system. "In recent years, the education system has formally included a significant number of students with many educational deficits, coming mostly from households where no Bulgarian is spoken," he says. Valchev notes that the dropout rate is falling, the average number of years children spend in school is increasing, but the amount of poor graduation grades is also rising. "Obviously it is difficult to integrate these students quickly and effectively. It is also a problem that a large proportion of teachers refrain from giving the lowest grades, schools lower requirements and cover up non-attendance," he explained. Valchev identifies measures to tackle the issue: more resources in schools with concentrations of problematic students, early inclusion in the education system and systematic efforts to support and integrate, including linguistically, children whose mother tongue is not Bulgarian. "There is also a need to ease the requirements for teachers in the event of a low grade. Currently, teachers refrain from giving such as it involves extra teaching and paperwork," he underlines. Valchev also comments on the debate whether Bulgaria's national holiday should be March 3 (Liberation Day) or May 24 (Bulgarian Education and Culture and Slavonic Literature Day): "Few nations have the privilege of celebrating a holiday like May 24 and the chance to choose as a national holiday the celebration of spirituality. To be accused of not being patriotic if we support the choice of May 24 is tantamount to accusing those who support March 3 of being against education, science, spirituality and culture as values," he argues.

WOMEN IN JUDICIARY

Duma quotes data from an NSI gender equality survey which shows that half of the leadership positions in the judiciary are held by women. Gender parity is also recorded at various official levels, with 57.1% of deputy heads' positions occupied predominantly by women.

CULTURE

Telegraph features an extensive interview with archaeologist Nikolay Ovcharov regarding the excavations at the ancient Thracian city of Perperikon (Eastern Rhodopes). Research there began nearly a quarter of a century ago, and the last two years are the first in which archaeologists have not received government funding. "The state doesn't give us a penny for this most famous archaeological site in the country," he says. Ovcharov adds that researchers have received no explanation for this decision. "It is good that we are supported by the Kardzhali Municipality, which funded us with BGN 150,000 this year, and that we received some additional funds from a European project, but this is extremely insufficient in view of the goals we have set ourselves - to uncover at least 70% of Perperikon,” he explained.