This week we have witnessed verbal jousting and pre-election political turbulence on occasion of the increased presence of NATO forces in the Black Sea region. Bulgaria’s former Premier and GERB leader Boyko Borissov opened fire first after caretaker Minister of Defense Stefan Yanev confirmed at the NATO summit in Brussels that Sofia was supporting NATO’s course in the Black Sea. “They showed obedience in Brussels and later they were telling me that I was obedient”, Boyko Borissov said and reminded his stand expresses in the summer of 2016 which was against the formation of a NATO fleet in the Black Sea that had to oppose to possible Russian aggression. When Borissov was still Prime Minister he stated that he would like to see yachts, sailboats and tourists in the Black Sea, instead of warships.

The political turbulence increased when the leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party Kornelia Ninova joined the verbal skirmish. She attacked her political opponent Boyko Borissov with the following words: “Borissov has been trying to convert himself from a hawk into a sparrow, but his attempts are not that successful”. She reminded that GERB’s cabinet supported at the NATO summit held in Warsaw in July last year the plans for increased presence of the alliance in the Black Sea region due to the situation related to the annexation of Crimea and the Ukrainian conflict. However, Boyko Borrisov said in return the following: “I don’t know whether I am a sparrow, or a dove, but I would not use the language of that lady, because I am a gentleman and if I was not such I would compare her with some other bird species.” BSP leader Kornelia Ninova specified that her political party did not want Bulgaria and the Black Sea to become a maneuvering ground and that the Black Sea should be declared a demilitarized zone.

Bulgaria’s President Rumen Radev joined the discussion saying that NATO has to boost its defense capacity in the Black Sea. He said that the military trainings in that region did not pose threat over the sailboats and the tourism sector and that NATO’s military exercise in the Black Sea negotiated at the Warsaw summit had nothing to do with the idea of the so-called Black Sea Fleet which was proposed by Turkey and later rejected by the Bulgarian authorities. President Radev called on all political parties to realize during the election campaign that everyone should deal with the security topic in a competent manner and that discussions held on that topic must be responsible.  

Moscow is likely to respond to the increased NATO maneuvers in the Black Sea, (including the Bulgarian section of the Black Sea) and to the deployment of US military staff and military equipment at Novo Selo training ground for rotational exercises. According to some international observers, Russia has already taken reciprocal measures and NATO’s latest actions would surely destabilize the Black Sea region in the future. Others, however, believe that Boyko Borissov’s words about the sailboats and the development of tourism along the Black Sea coast are reasonable. Last year the number of foreign tourists visiting Bulgaria increased sharply and the revenues of Bulgaria’s tourism sector were excellent due to the turbulence in neighboring Turkey. However, it is still unclear whether this will happen again in the summer of 2017.