Ex-DefMin Appointed Head of Bulgaria's Defense Institute

Todor Tagarev, a Bulgarian defense expert who served as interim Defense Minister in March-May 2013, is taking over as head of a key R&D and training institute with the ministry.

Tagarev was appointed to the office by Minister Nikolay Nenchev on Wednesday, the Defense Ministry's press service says.

The Defense Institute, bearing the name of aviation engineer Tsvetan Lazarov (1896-1961), is the country's single state-owned institution using some of the know-how of the former military research and development agencies that were active during the Cold War. It is tasked with preparing analyses of the state of the Bulgarian Armed Forces and helping implement documents synchronizing Bulgarian military standards with those of NATO.

It is also a higher education institution accredited to award doctoral degrees in a number of fields related to military equipment.