It is not often that I turn my attention to political matters in these blogs – I think the last time was when I wrote about Bulgaria adopting the euro (The Last Roar of the Lion). In that post I mentioned the elephant in the room – well, more like the octopus in the room, describing the tentacles of corruption that writhe through the fabric of this (potentially) great country. Today’s post looks at a rapidly developing story that is hitting the news headlines here.
The title of the post is taken from an article by the Sofia News Agency, written by Ivan Kolev earlier this month.
The Ukrainian Investor, the Illegal City, and the Political Cover: Bulgaria’s Biggest Scandal of the Year.
In November 2023, construction equipment was moved into a nature protected forestry area north of the city of Varna. By May 2026, 104 buildings had been constructed on the site (including houses, apartments and infrastructure). covering an area of just over 11 acres. The development was called Forest Club Varna. No building permits had been issued. Many of the properties have been sold, involving notaries and some banks providing mortgages. Fake documents were created, claiming to provide indemnity against future demolition, but the legal basis for such indemnity only extends to properties built before 2001. They lied about the dates.
The Ukrainian businessman behind the development was being investigated in his home country for tax evasion, money laundering, and the trafficking of drugs and people. He drives an armoured Toyota Land Cruiser – which was found parked at the Ukrainian embassy in Sofia. An expulsion order was signed for him by the acting head of Bulgaria’s State Agency for National Security in June 2025. This was revoked 2 weeks later without any explanation, while the order for his associate remained in force.
The Regional Development Minister who recently visited the site described it as “organised blindness”. A number of investigations have been opened and it is very much a story in progress. Some demolition orders have been issued, with no compensation for the property owners, but the legal processes could take years to complete. The article notes that it is a story about how…
…Bulgarian institutions across multiple governments, political parties, ;oca; government, national regulators, intelligence services, prosecutors, collectively failed to stop something that many of them knew about, and some of them may have actively helped along.
To paraphrase Shakespeare’s Hamlet, something is rotten in the state of Varna. The key question still to be answered about the businessman according to Ivan Kolov is…
Who gave him his protection, at what level, from which party, and in exchange for what?
Postscript:
For those of you who like symbolism, this weekend one of Varna’s beautiful beaches was closed to bathers because of high levels of e-coli in the sea due to faecal contamination.
Psychologist on the Move 