Radev has encouraged Ukraine to sue for peace, does not support sending arms to Kyiv and says his insistence that Crimea is “Russian” simply reflects a strategic reality. He is also a critic of Sofia’s accession to the euro this year, arguing the new currency has stoked inflation.
In his remarks after voting on Sunday morning, Radev said the election was an opportunity to “take back” the country from oligarchs, but also called for relations of “mutual respect” with Moscow, based on Russia’s role in liberating Bulgaria from the Ottoman empire in 1878.
While these positions have helped him build up a base of support at home, he has avoided direct confrontation with the West and has generally fallen in step with the European mainstream when attending European Council meetings in Brussels.
European funds are vital to the EU’s poorest member country and Bulgarian leaders have traditionally avoided any provocative antics in Brussels in the style of outgoing Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán.
A senior EU diplomat said Radev was nowhere close to Orbán as a disruptive force. They said Radev was in a “much different league” when it comes to his ability, and desire, to upend policy. He and others like Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico “don’t come close [to Orbán] in experience, tenacity, network and ideas,” the diplomat added.
In the days before the election, former MiG-29 pilot Radev pushed back against the accusations that he was pro-Russian.
