A scandalous cable of Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev to the Permanent Representative of Bulgaria to the UN Lachezara Stoeva reveals unprecedented pressure of the caretaker government to change Bulgaria’s geopolitical position at the last moment before the vote on a resolution on Srebrenica.
Stoeva refused Glavchev and Bulgaria supported the resolution, of which she co-authored.
This is revealed by the diplomatic documents obtained by BIRD.
According to our sources, the turnaround in the government’s position came after communication between the Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić and Boyko Borissov, in which the former Bulgarian prime minister was reminded that the Serbian mafia boss Sreten Josic will soon be released from prison.
The draft UN resolution proclaims 11 July as the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Genocide and condemns the denial of genocide as a historical fact, including those responsible for the Srebrenica genocide.
The resolution does not mention Serbia by name.
However, the Serbian state, supported by the Russian Federation, undertook intensive diplomatic shuttles to derail the adoption of the resolution.
Apparently, in Bulgaria, this pressure has yielded results, as evidenced by the cable Glavchev sent to New York on May 23, 2024.
Bulgaria is a co-author of the draft resolution together with Germany and Rwanda and until the last moment the instructions from the Foreign Ministry are clear.
Co-authorship of draft resolutions at the UN obliges the state to support it without explanation.
But just two hours before the vote, Prime Minister Glavchev sent a cable asking our permanent representative to abstain from voting, contrary to the policy pursued so far.
Lachezara Stoeva refused to comply with this directive of Glavchev and responded with four pages of arguments in which she explained why Bulgaria could not make such a somersault at the last moment and how such a change would affect the reputation of the state.
Bulgaria didn’t abstain and voted the resolution on Srebrenica.
Of course, this is not about Dimitar Glavchev’s self-initiative, but about instructions from his party boss – former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, who otherwise advertises himself as a convinced Euro-Atlanticist.
Sreten is coming…
Serbian mobster Sreten Josic AKA Joca Amsterdam, is serving a sentence in Serbia after being sentenced in 2010 to 15 years in prison for ordering the murder of Goran Marijanovic.
He has been in Zabela prison in Požarevac since 2013 and is about to be released.
It is believed that Sreten Josic has a strong motive to harm Borisov.
According to Josic, who spoke before the Belgrade court, Borissov did not comply with an agreement to provide him with a safe heaven for staying in Bulgaria.
“In Bulgaria I was safe. I was protected by their security services, Boyko Borisov, who later became mayor of Sofia, and Nikolay Gigov, owner of the Lokomotiv football club, with whom I was connected through business, because he was a legal arms dealer,” Josic said during his trial in Belgrade.
Borissov then denied what Josic said and replied that “During my work as Secretary General of the Ministry of Interior, Sreten Josic was sought, detained and extradited to the Netherlands at the request of the Dutch government.”
The businessman Nikolay Gigov, mentioned by Josic, is known to be close to GERB.
His daughter is a parliamentary assistant to GERB MEP Emil Radev, and he and Radev have traveled to Libya, where they offer Libyan officials to release the arrested tanker BADR for ransom.
Sreten Josic’s connections in Bulgaria also lead to the scandal with the murder of Croatian journalist Ivo Pukanic.
A company of Bulgarian businessman Ognyan Bozarov has made transfers for nearly 1 mln. euro to the account of Slobodan Djurovic, Josic’s right-hand man convicted of this murder, revealed an OCCRP investigation .
Josic was also accused for ordering Pukanic’s murder, but the court did not find enough evidence.
The imminent release from prison of Sreten Josic and the issue of his control by the Serbian services is a strong lever of political pressure on the former Bulgarian prime minister, who US officials say has a dark mafia past related to Josic’s specialty – drug trafficking.
In a 2005 report to the State Department, then-U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria John Beyrle wrote the following:
13. (S/NF) Accusations in the past have linked Borisov to fuel drain scandals, illegal transactions in combination with Lukoil and serious methamphetamine smuggling. The information from SIMO is in confirmation of these accusations. Borissov is believed to have used his post as head of Bulgarian law enforcement to cover up his criminal acts, and the woman he cohabits with, Tsvetelina Borislavova, runs a large bank that has been accused of money laundering for criminal organizations, as well as participating in Borisov’s own illegal transactions. Borisov is said to have serious ties to some mafia figures, including Mladen Mihalev (also called Madzho), and his former organized crime partner Rumen Nikolov (also called “The Pasha”).»
SIMO is synonymous with the CIA, which American diplomats use to avoid mentioning the three-letter headquarters in Langley.
This information was revealed in a publication of the German newspaper Tageszeitung.
According to information from our sources, the argument for Josic’s fate was used by Serbian President Vučić to Boyko Borissov to influence Bulgaria’s position and change it at the last minute.
A sign that Vučić expected our country to vote in favor of Serbia is the expressed disappointment after the Bulgaria’s vote.
In addition to being a diplomatic scandal undermining Bulgaria’s prestige and reputation, the case is a demonstration of the danger of Bulgarian foreign policy becoming hostage to Borisov’s personal dependencies, rooted in his turbulent gangster past.
Borisov’s commitment to build the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, which untied Putin’s hands to attack Ukraine, is also viewed as a consequence of his dependencies.
Материалът Sreten is coming?Why the Bulgarian PM changed the government position on Srebrenica е публикуван за пръв път на BIRD.
