Elitsa Simeonova is a correspondent in RFE/RL's Central Newsroom in Prague. She previously was a correspondent in Sofia for RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service.
Friends in high places come with lucrative benefits in Uzbekistan. For a phantom company with connections to the president’s son-in-law, these included tens of millions of dollars in opaque state contracts, a new RFE/RL investigation has found.
Three years ago, an unknown Uzbek company registered in an apartment emerged from nowhere to land more than $100 million in state contracts before vanishing again. A new RFE/RL investigation reveals the firm’s ties to the Uzbek president’s son-in-law.
Russia is increasing its cooperation with China in 5G and satellite technology and this could facilitate Moscow's military aggression against Ukraine, a report by the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) security think tank warns.
Two French nationals have told RFE/RL they're both very much alive and living in France, despite Russian state media claims they were in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv at the time of a Russian missile strike on January 16.
After Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Europe has successfully reduced its dependence on Russian gas. That, experts say, is good for the EU's long-term energy security. Yet cutting Russia out of the energy equation completely will be much harder to achieve across a divided EU.
For years, he was mostly known as an oligarch and media mogul, who rarely appeared in public and is sanctioned by the U.S. for his "extensive role in corruption in Bulgaria." But now, Delyan Peevski is coming out of the shadows and is increasingly a more influential presence.
The death of a 25-year-old man in a psychiatric hospital highlights what a report by Bulgaria's ombudswoman called the "cruel, inhuman, and degrading" treatment of patients. The man died in a fire while he was locked in an isolation room, tied down for hours, and left without medical supervision.
Ahead of local elections last weekend, Bulgarian officials cancelled machine voting 36 hours before polls opened. The move sparked protests and -- ahead of a November 5 runoff -- has thrown the election administration into chaos and strained the ties of the country's ruling coalition.
The U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has said it is “too early” to rule out the possibility that Kyiv's counteroffensive against Russian forces will achieve "significant gains."
Attacks using cluster munitions by both Russia and Ukraine since the start of the Kremlin's full-scale invasion last year have helped lead to a "dramatic" increase in the use of such weapons, highlighting the need for more countries to join a global ban.
Thousands of people staged protest rallies in the capital, Sofia, and other Bulgarian cities on July 31 following a case of shocking violence against an 18-year-old woman.
The Bulgarian capital has spent millions on installing Hikvision surveillance cameras in its public transit network, just as other EU countries are shying away from the technology.
Dutch resistance is widely blamed for keeping Bulgaria and Romania out of Europe's border-free zone despite EU institutional acknowledgment that they're "more than ready to join."
Since boarding a one-way flight from Moscow to Bulgaria on the second day of the war, 26-year-old Russian Aleksandr Stotsky has spent nearly eight months condemning Putin and his policies. Is that enough for asylum?
As Bulgaria finds itself mired in political instability and with the fourth parliamentary elections in two years, Bulgaria's far-right Revival party is making gains.
A Russian fugitive's case shot to the top of Moscow's list of priorities after he burned his Russian passport to protest the invasion of Ukraine. Now, a Bulgarian court says it can't trust Russian assurances that he'd get a fair trial and he shouldn't be sent home.
The Brikel coal-fired power plant has been polluting the air in Galabovo, Bulgaria, with impunity for years. Residents, authorities, and environmental activists have tried repeatedly to shut it down. But a court has ruled it can continue.
Officials including Prime Minister Kiril Petkov channel local resentment to relocate Ukrainian families away from the Bulgarian Riviera, baffling displaced victims of Russia's invasion and prompting some to return home despite the risks.
The Bulgarian Judo Federation (BFD) has defended its hiring of a French judo coach involved in a violent domestic incident with a former European champion judoka, saying Alain Schmitt is "a specialist to lead us to the Olympics in Paris" in 2024.
Many students in Bulgaria are back online for a third straight school year as COVID-19 rates spike in the EU's least vaccinated country. Parents are furious, saying being away from classmates is taking a heavy mental toll.
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