Watchdog

SOFIA – Bulgaria's government is creating a blacklist of individuals and entities associated with three prominent Bulgarians hit by sanctions imposed by the United States for their alleged "extensive roles in corruption."

All state and local authorities will be banned from working with former parliament member Delyan Peevski, oligarch Vassil Bozhkov, and top intelligence official Ilko Zhelyazkov, the cabinet said on June 4.

The restrictions also apply to companies the three men own or control and all individuals or companies said to be linked to them.

The move aims to "protect companies with state and municipal participation and other spending units from falling within the scope of the sanctions," the cabinet said.

On June 2, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against the three powerful figures under the Global Magnitsky Act for their "extensive roles" in corruption in Bulgaria. It also placed sanctions on 64 entities said to be linked to them.

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Bulgaria, a NATO member and the poorest country in the EU, is plagued by endemic corruption.

The Global Magnitsky Act bans entry to the United States of any person under sanctions. It also blocks any U.S.-based property, including overseas U.S. dollar accounts, held by sanctioned individuals and prevents U.S. entities from doing business with them.

The Bulgarian government said it was setting up a working group to prepare its blacklist "as a matter of urgency." Anyone related to or who has worked with the individuals and companies sanctioned by the United States is to be included.

The sanctions come before snap parliamentary elections scheduled for July 11 and could potentially hurt the image of the former ruling GERB party.

Peevski, who controlled large swaths of the Bulgarian media landscape, including newspapers and television stations, is considered one of the most powerful people in the country.

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He served in parliament as a member of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party, which is mostly made up of ethnic Turks.

The Bulgarian opposition accuses Peevski of controlling the former ruling GERB party, including ministers in the government of former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, from behind the scenes.

Bozhkov is one of Bulgaria's richest individuals, having made his fortune in the country's gambling industry. He fled Bulgaria last year for Dubai amid accusations of corruption.

Earlier this year, he formed the Bulgaria Summer political party, which was among the 64 entities put on the Treasury Department sanctions list.

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Following the U.S. announcement of the sanctions, Peevski was quoted as saying he had not been engaged "in any corrupt activity."

Bozhkov denounced "an attempt to stop a legally registered Bulgarian party from participating in the elections."

Zhelyazkov took a leave from his post at the National Bureau for Control on Special Intelligence-Gathering Devices.

Also on June 2, the U.S. State Department announced a travel ban on three former Bulgarian officials for their involvement in corruption. Their immediate family members are also banned from entering the United States.

MINSK -- A European Union ban on Belarusian carriers accessing EU airports and flying through EU airspace has taken effect.

The EU imposed the ban on June 4 in response to Minsk’s forced diversion of a passenger flight last month and the arrest of a dissent journalist.

The 27 member states are “required to deny permission to land in, take off from or overfly their territories to any aircraft operated by Belarusian air carriers,” the EU said in a statement.

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Enforcement of the EU ban will fall on member state governments. Several EU members have already implemented such a ban.

Belarusian national carrier Belavia said in a statement on June 4 that it has received permission to operate flights to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport and will begin service five times a week -- Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays -- on June 10.

The airline also will add four flights to Istanbul beginning June 12, increasing its service to two flights daily from the current 10 times a week, and from June 15 will double the number of flights to the Black Sea city of Batumi, Georgia, from seven to 14, the airline said. Also from June 15, the airline plans to increase flights to Tbilisi from seven to 11 times a week.

Before the EU ban, Belavia operated flights between Belarus and some 20 airports in Europe.

The ban also includes marketing carriers, which sell seats on planes operated by another airline.

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The EU announced a series of punitive measures following Belarus’s scrambling of a fighter jet to force the landing on May 23 of a Ryanair flight carrying opposition activist and journalist Raman Pratasevich. He and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, who was also on board the flight, were immediately arrested.

The plane diversion came amid a sweeping crackdown on the opposition by the regime of authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has run Belarus since 1994. The country has seen unprecedented pro-democracy protests following a disputed August 2020 presidential election that the opposition says was rigged and many Western nations have refused to acknowledge.

EU member states have called on the European Council to adopt sanctions against Belarusian individuals and entities, as well as targeted economic sanctions.

The bloc has also recommended all EU-based carriers avoid flying over Belarus.