site.bta"Being Nominally Part of the Coalition of the Willing Is Not Enough," Says Ex-President Plevneliev

"Every day the countries of the coalition of the willing make public the specific things by which they can and do help Ukraine, and it is high time that our government do this, too. Being nominally there is not enough," Bulgarian President (2012-2017) Rosen Plevneliev said here on Monday.

He was speaking at the opening of a National Scientific Conference titled "The Freedom of Ukraine". The event is organized by the New Bulgarian University Department of New Bulgarian Studies with the support of the Association of Reserve Officers "Atlantic".

He pointed out that peace is only possible where there are rules on peace, and they should apply to and be complied with by everybody. "Wise rather than strong leaders are needed, people who build rather than wreck the peace rules," he argued. 

Regarding the war in Ukraine, Plevneliev commented that "the dictator in Moscow", who "started a pointless, unnecessary and bloody war", who is an "international criminal," unlawfully annexed parts of independent and sovereign Ukraine in 2014. 

The President also noted the role of religion, stating that the Orthodox Church of Russia and a large part of the Orthodox Church in Bulgaria have "come under the boot of the imperial ambitions of the new czar in Moscow".

"We cannot be proud when our Church relinquishes its fundamental moral values, we cannot be silent when the President of the Republic describes those who breached the rules of international legal order which guarantee peace as peacemakers and peacelovers," Plevneliev pointed out.

He added that one of the greatest concerns is the way in which "President Trump is negotiating today with the dictator in Moscow". He does not find any difference between this and the 1938 Munich Agreement, which did not bring peace but disgrace to those who legitimated the ambition of Hitler who then obtained unlimited power.