Nikolai Malinov: Europe and Bulgaria are stronger with Russia

Nikolai Malinov, the leader of Bulgaria’s National Russophile Movement, charged with spying for Russia, speaks about the criminal investigation launched against him, and about the creation of the political party Revival of the Fatherland.

Right now, the case is in the so-called "pre-trial" stage. It is supposed to end in March next year, that is 18 months from now, but the case has not been opened in a court of law, and the investigation has not been completed yet. Therefore, I can't provide any detailed information, but I can comment on the case itself, just like I did before. I think these accusations are unfair, illogical and, generally speaking, that’s why last year I and my colleagues, with whom we work in the national Russophile movement, came up with this idea. We have been promoting cultural Russophilia for almost 20 years now. The project has been a great success. We started virtually from scratch; we were a very small and very weak group of influence in our society. And now, studies being carried out in NATO countries and by European and Bulgarian sociological services show that the overwhelming majority of 75-80 percent believes that Bulgaria is a Russophile country. The team I’m working with has other positive projects in the pipeline too. I don’t think we should “stick them out,” so to say, but this still is an important part of our motivation, the very fact that we are able to do this kind of work, and it seems to us that the political superstructure is a natural continuation of cultural Russophilia that we’ve been engaged in the past 20 years.

In an allegedly “democratic” country, like Bulgaria is at the moment, you can’t engage in cultural Russophilia, which for us is a matter of high value, without having political and legislative protection. Russophilia is based on traditional values, the ideas of a strong state, the values ​​of a multipolar world, and it seems to us that adding a political dimension to our activities is absolutely logical. I would also like to say a few words about our initiatives.  Last Friday, I was registered as the chairman of the Revival of the Fatherland party. This party was created by reserve officers, generals and colonels - people of honor. The main priority of this political project is protection of our values, not us personally. We are trying to and will achieve our goal in a legal way through referendums and appeals to the people, because we don’t know just where the key issues of our future and our state are decided and by whom. And it seems to us that referendums are the best toolkit for solving such important issues as participation in military-political alliances, and other important issues, such as the presence of foreign troops in Bulgaria, and so on, and so forth, by providing legislative safeguards for our party, our values ​​and the interests of the majority of the Bulgarian people. This is how we are going to achieve our goals.

Given our vast experience, both organizational and media, I believe that at the end of the day, this symbiosis will yield good results. My first initiative as chairman was this: I suggested that during their public addresses, whether at schools, universities or in parliament, all Bulgarian citizens always start with the phrase: "I am against foreign troops in Bulgaria." This is because senior US officials say that troops from Germany - American, NATO troops - should move towards countries that are closer to Russia, thus openly declaring their aggressive intentions towards Russia. We believe that the presence of foreign troops, be it Russian, American, Angolan, Cuban, whatever, is against the interests of our Bulgarian society. Whoever and wherever wants to fight, let him fight on his territory, we do not want to be anyone’s battlefield. Moreover, the main idea of ​​our organization and the first slogan that we put forward is that Europe and Bulgaria are stronger with Russia. We stand for peaceful and cultural competition between peoples and nations, not for saber-rattling whether in the Black Sea or elsewhere, let alone on our territory. We are for an independent sovereign state of Bulgaria, in education, culture, science, the spiritual sphere, military-political, in any industry where our international agreements permit. We believe that we need to promote such relations, both within the framework of cooperation between the European Union and Russia, and our thousand-year history of brotherhood with Russia.

I think that Europe is facing a serious threat from Africa with its three to four-billion-strong population, as studies show. Hundreds of millions of hungry and desperate people, who can move to Europe... We take them in, but they must live according to our own rules and cultural models, not multiculturalism. Likewise, China’s economic progress poses certain risks for Europe. I believe that only if Europe and Russia stick together and promote Euro-continentalism, can we be more stable, both us and Russia. This is why we will propose that Bulgaria withdraws from NATO’s military structures. We are not against dialogue with the alliance, but we prioritize dialogue with Russia and a Euro-continental development of Bulgaria and Europe. So, this is the geopolitical course that our Revival of the Fatherland party is going to stay. It seems to us that our big potential are the approximately 18-20 percent of Russophile-minded Bulgarians, who are either not affiliated with any party, or are dissatisfied with their participation in one or another party and with the way their values ​​are protected. Or, as one of my friend joked, our party’s "Putintial," in terms of our ability to mobilize people in the near future, or how many we will mobilize one, two or five years from now. Time will show. We are a very young party, literally we are just a few days old, and so I think this is enough information for now.

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