PRESIDENT PARVANOV EXPOSED AS COMMUNIST STATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SOFIA 000916

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/31/2017
TAGS: PGOV BU
SUBJECT: PRESIDENT PARVANOV EXPOSED AS COMMUNIST STATE
SECURITY COLLABORATOR

REF: A. (A) SOFIA 510

B. (B) SOFIA 1655

C. (C) 06 SOFIA 1499

Classified By: CDA Alex Karagiannis for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: The commission set-up earlier this year to
review the files of the former communist secret services
announced that President Georgi Parvanov and key members of
his staff collaborated with the communist-era State Security
agency. Parvanov was recruited by the State Security's
external intelligence service in 1989, shortly before the
communist regime collapsed, and his file was closed in 1993.
His foreign policy advisors and members of his staff, some of
whom now serve as Ambassadors to NATO capitals, also had ties
with the communist intelligence service. The basic outlines
of this information, but not all the details, had already
been in the public domain, and had not affected Parvanov's
overwhelming 2006 re-election. While the conservation
opposition and some media outlets attempted to play up the
revelations, they were overshadowed by the release of
Bulgarian nurses from Libya. We doubt the revelations will
appreciably impact Parvanov's political standing, but his
State Security ties will likely continue to haunt him. END
SUMMARY

PRESIDENT "WITH A PAST"


2. (C) After false starts, confusion, and plenty of
political gamesmanship, Bulgaria's parliament set up a nine
member commission to review the files of the communist secret
services (reftels). Not much was expected of the commission,
with many observers predicting that many files were purged or
incomplete and that release would be slow and tortuous. The
commission's first release of documents proved to be a bit
more dramatic. On July 19 it released files that twenty-four
current and former Presidential Administration senior
officials, including incumbent President Parvanov and a
former Vice President, had collaborated with the
communist-era State Security Service.


3. (U) The commission found that President Parvanov had
collaborated with the State Security's First Chief
Directorate -- the communist-era external intelligence
service. A historian specializing in Balkan history, Parvanov
was approached by the so-called "cultural-historical"
department of the external intelligence service. He was
recruited as a secret collaborator under the codename "Gotze"
in October 1989 and his file was closed in July 1993, the
commission said. His State Security file, which was made
public, includes a payment receipt and reports by the
supervising officer, but no documents or information written
or signed by Parvanov.

... AND THE PRESIDENT'S MEN


4. (U) The commission's list also features the President's
top aides, including all his present and former foreign
policy advisers. Parvanov's current foreign policy aides
(Emil Vulev and Pavlina Popova),his protocol chief, and his
chief of ceremonies were also affiliated with communist-era
external intelligence. His domestic policy aide in charge of
analysis and forecasting, Dobrin Kanev, collaborated with
military intelligence. Todor Velev, in charge of Parvanov's
schedule, collaborated with the State Security's most feared
department, the political police.


5. (SBU) Former staffers on Parvanov's team whom he
subsequently appointed as Ambassadors, including to NATO
states, also collaborated with State Security. Parvanov's
former Chief of Staff Andrei Karaslavov, currently Ambassador
to Greece, and two former foreign policy advisors -- Zlatin
Trupkov, now Ambassador to the Hague, and Georgi Dimitrov,
Ambassador to Belgrade -- all worked for the State Security
external intelligence service. Another former foreign policy
aide, Nikola Karadimov, now Bulgaria's envoy to Norway,
worked for the department gathering intelligence in the field
of science and technology. Parvanov's former Chief of
Protocol, Atanas Pavlov, who now heads the mission in
Lichtenstein, worked for the communist counter-intelligence
service. Parvanov's newly-appointed economic advisor
Ventsislav Dimitrov, one of the founders of the
anti-communist Union of Democratic Forces (UDF),was also a
State Security agent. A number of former collaborators also
served in other post-Communist presidential administrations.

QUESTIONABLE TIES


6. (SBU) Given persistent speculation about Parvanov's
State Security ties, in recent years, the Commission's
findings came as no surprise. Calls by the center-right

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opposition for Parvanov to come clean about his State
Security ties led Parvanov to acknowledge in June 2006 the
existence of a secret intelligence file on him (ref C).
Parvanov explained that he had been approached by a "Foreign
Ministry official," and not until later did he learn that the
man was actually a State Security officer. Parvanov, who then
worked as a researcher at the Institute of History of the
Bulgarian Communist Party, was asked to consult on the
publication of a book on Macedonian history. "The Gotze file
contains information about me and not a word written by
myself," Parvanov said. But his vocal stand against the
file's disclosure led many to believe he had more secrets to
hide. The President and his close associate, Interior
Minister Roumen Petkov, were among the officials who had
allegedly exercised tacit pressure on Socialist MPs last year
to limit the scope of the commission law by excluding from
its purview mid-level intelligence chiefs (ref A). The
mid-2006 "Gotze" file scandal did not affect Parvanov's
popularity and he won the October 2006 presidential run-off
with an unprecedented 76 percent of the vote.


7. (U) Following the commission's revelation, the
President's staff moved quickly to minimize potential damage.
Parvanov requested his State Security file from the
commission and promptly published its 29-pages on the
presidency website. His press office said that Parvanov had
admitted the existence of the "Gotze" file a year ago. In a
series of interviews his Chief of Staff reiterated the
President had no idea he had worked with State Security. He
said the president's aides who had worked for State Security
were "defending the national interest," and added they will
retain their posts.


8. (SBU) The 29-page file that was made public did not
include any papers signed by Parvanov. Some reports written
by his handler, however, clash with Parvanov's assertion he
was unaware that he was dealing with State Security. In one
document the supervising officer describes Parvanov as a
"well prepared historian" who has expressed "readiness and
willingness to work with the State Security
services"..."After a series of regular meetings, the person
has become attracted to doing further work on behalf of the
State Security,"

NOT THE WHOLE TRUTH?


9. (SBU) Naturally, the release of Parvanov's casefile has
become political fodder. According to the center-right
opposition (primarily UDF),however, the file that was made
public has been tampered with and pages missing. Former
Prime Minsiter Ivan Kostov said 36 pages,supposedly
compromising material written by Parvanov himself, had been
taken out on March 27, shortly before the commission was
formed. Allegedly the missing pages constituted Parvanov's
reports on the mood at the History Institute as a result of
democratic changes in Bulgaria. Kostov directly accused the
chief of the present-day National Intelligence Service (NIS),
Gen. Kircho Kirov, of cleaning-up the presidential file.
Furthermore, Kostov implied there was a connection between
the cleansing of Parvanov's file and the mysterious death
last November of the NIS chief archivist. (Note: The
communist-era intelligence files, including the "Gotze" file,
were housed at NIS, which is under the Presidency. End Note.)


10. (U) Kostov declined to say how he obtained this
information but his allegations led commission chair Eftim
Kostadinov to publicly admit that Parvanov's file might have
been tampered with. "One can see that pages appear to be
missing," Kostadinov, a former Socialist MP, told state
radio. A few days later,however, following a hearing of NIS
Chief Kirov at the commission, Kostadinov backtracked, saying
there was nothing missing from the file but the pages were
re-numbered according to a complex State Security
methodology. His contradictory statements raised more
questions about its authenticity. In damage control, Kirov,
as well as his two predecessors, dimissed allegations of
file-tampering. The commission is now scheduled to meet with
NIS officials who kept the file before submitting it to the
commisssion, as well as with Parvanov's State Security
handler, to clarify whether parts of the file have been
destroyed or have somehow gone missing.


11. (SBU) The center-right opposition as well as the extreme
nationalist party Ataka called for Parvanov's resignation,
saying,"it was a shameful fact that the Bulgarian head of
state had been a part of the communist regime's repressive
machine." Parvanov's ruling Socialist Party (BSP),in which
he still enjoys strong influence, played down the issue. BSP
officials said the opposition's reaction demonstrated the
deficit of political ideas in the center-right. The ethnic
Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF),a junior

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government coalition partner, echoed the Socialists, "The
issue has long lost its topical relevance. The opposition
evidently have nothing better to do than rake in the past,"
said MRF leader Ahmen Dogan, who was himself exposed as a
former State Security agent back in 1997. Interior Minister
Roumen Petkov scolded the commission, saying it
mirsrepresented Parvanov's case. Foreign Minister Ivailo
Kalfin, who previously served as Parvanov's economic
advisor,went further, saying the law for the opening of the
communist-era files was "harmful for Bulgaria." Kalfin made
clear Bulgaria will not recall diplomats who had been exposed
as State Security collaborators (an NGO group has started a
campaign to force the recall). Sofia Mayor Boiko Borissov,the
only Bulgarian politician whose polling numbers are as high
as Parvanov's, remained silent, fueling speculation about a
deal between the country's two most popular officials to not
attack each other.

MUTED MEDIA REACTION


12. (U) With a few notable exceptions, the commission's
revelation about Parvanov's State Security file was largely
handled by the press as a non-event. The two largest
circulation daily newspapers, each with close ties to the
Presidency, buried the news on their back pages. That led
reputable Capital weekly to say in an editorial, "The former
State Security collaborators are still in place even today.
They not only control the state, but successfully spin
information in the media." Monitor daily asserted that in
order to get a job at the Presidency, one has to have been a
State Security agent. Business-oriented Dnevnik ran an
editorial titled "The Only Ones in the EU," claiming that in
the rest of the Eastern European states, presidents, PMs and
ministers usually resign if they have been linked to
communist-era security services. "The question now is not
whether Parvanov has been a State Security agent but whether
the past of the young historian Parvanov influences the
present of the incumbent President," a commentary in Sega
daily said. The July 24 return home of Bulgarian nurses who
had been under death sentence in Libya pushed the Parvanov
story off the media spotlight altogether.


13. (C) COMMENT: Although hardly a surprise, the
Commission's findings constitute the first official
confirmation of Parvanov's past as a communist-era security
service collaborator. The news, though troublesome and
unwelcome to Parvanov, is unlikely to hav a significant
impact on his political standing. He easily weathered a
similar scandal last year with his popularity unscathed.
Speculation about missing parts of his file has left the
public believing that the whole truth about politicians'
links with State Security may never be unveiled. In that
sense, it will feed public synicism. Contacts from both
sides of the political spectrum give long odds against any
drastic developments, such as Parvanov's resignation --
except in the unlikely event of strong Western pressure --
but say the issue is likely to be resurrected periodically.
The issue will gain a new impetus later this year when the
Commission names State Security collaborators among
government ministers and MPs. Politicians from both sides of
the political spectrum are likely to be exposed. END COMMENT.

KARAGIANNIS