Book Naming Bulgarian Oligarchs' 'Servants' Puzzles MEPs

The offices of several Members of the European Parliament have confirmed to BIRN that they have received a mysterious book for free, named "The Bulgarian Oligarchy. They Plundered the State".

It is published by the Bulgarian newspaper Telegraf, which is part of the Balkan Media Company, linked to the controversial media mogul Delyan Peevski.

The cover shows exiled ex-banker Tsvetan Vassilev, pharma boss Ognyan Donev, former prime minister Ivan Kostov, and others, all accused of plundering Bulgaria and establishing the current oligarchy.

However, the book also attacks judges known for their criticism of the state of the Bulgarian judiciary and its independence - such as the head of the Supreme Court of Cassation Lozan Panov and Miroslava Todorova, a former President of the Union of Bulgarian Judges. It calls them the "judges of the oligarchy".

NGO activists and journalists have also been named as mercenaries and as generators of fake news.

Among those targeted are the prominent analyst and New York Times columnist Ivan Krastev, two founders of the investigative website Bivol, Atanas Chobanov and Asen Yordanov, the chairman of Transparency International Bulgaria, Ognyan Minchev, and others.

Kharim Khattab, press officer for German Die Linke party MEPs, told BIRN that most MEPs from their group had received the Bulgarian tome.

However, he doubted the parliamentarians had read the publication, as its arrival coincided with the so-called Green Week of the parliament, when MEPs visit their local constituencies.

Dimitar Dimitrov, a Brussels coordinator of the Bulgarian Green Party, qualified the publication as "propaganda" and said MEPs often receive such material, mostly from Turkey.

"The...