Alleged former communist state security agents gain prominence in Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The new Bulgarian Foreign Minister Teodora Genchovska has appointed her political cabinet, choosing eminent former state-security agents as her employees.

Petyo Petev has been appointed Head of cabinet. Born in 1956, he was a secret collaborator with the code name “Dinov” from the First General Directorate of State Security (DS). This service was involved in foreign policy intelligence. Petev was recruited in 1979 and was declared an agent of the former communist services by Decision 199/16.03.2011 of the Dossier Commission.

Ivan Petrov has been appointed Secretary General of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was born in 1953 and was a secret collaborator with the code name “Balinov” also from the First General Directorate of the State Security. He was recruited in 1983 and was declared an agent of the former communist services by Decision 199/16.03.2011 of the Dossier Commission.

Petar Vodenski, born in 1951, has been appointed an adviser to the minister. He was a secret collaborator with the code name “Velinov” to the Communist Military Intelligence of the Bulgarian People’s Army.

This service was in direct contact with the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union and under the full command of the secret police services of the Soviet Union KGB (Committee for State Security).

Its agents gathered military, military-technical and foreign policy information on NATO opponents at the time, especially on NATO’s South Eastern flanks. Petar Vodenski was recruited in 1984 and declared an agent of the former communist services by Decision 177/12.01.2011 of the Dossier Commission.

Petko Sertov has also been appointed an adviser to the minister. He has been a staff member since 1984 in the Second General Directorate of the State Security, which dealt with counterintelligence outside the army and was mainly focused on developing foreign diplomats in the country and monitoring the Bulgarian clergy, intelligentsia and sportsman who traveled abroad.

Sertov used to be also Chairperson of the State Agency for National Security during the government of Sergei Stanishev, which included the Socialist Party of the Bulgarian Prime Minister Stanishev, the party of the former Bulgarian King and Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and the Bulgarian party of the Turkish minority. This government has been regularly involved in dozens of corruption scandals, followed by several ministerial resignations. 

The appointments of the agents of the former State Security has caused great public concern in Bulgaria. A great number of analysts and public figures in the community of those repressed by the former communist services have come out strongly against the appointments.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs Teodora Genchovska comes from the populist party “There is such a people” of Slavi Trifonov. Before being elected minister, she was a chief expert in the administration of pro-Russian Bulgarian President Rumen Radev. Prior to this, Genchovska worked as a Defence Adviser at the Permanent Representation of Bulgaria to the European Union and the Permanent Delegation of Bulgaria to NATO.

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