Bulgarian deputy minister named as communist-era State Security collaborator
Bulgaria’s Dossier Commission, the body charged with identifying former agents and collaborators with the country’s communist-era State Security and military intelligence, has announced that Deputy Minister of Economy and Energy Boyan Stoyanov is the only current caretaker government figure who worked for State Security.
But the Economy and Energy Ministry responded that Stoyanov had been checked in 2008 by the Dossier Commission and at the time the commission had said that there was no evidence that he had been a full-time or part-time employee or secret collaborator with State Security or the Bulgarian People’s Army military intelligence.
The ministry asked the commission to clarify the apparent discrepancy, to which the commission responded that documentation was able available now that had not been available then.
The Dossier Commission checked the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Ministers, Cabinet ministers and deputy ministers in the caretaker government that took office under Marin Raykov on March 13 2013 following the caretaker administration’s appointment by President Rossen Plevneliev.
At the time that the caretaker cabinet was appointed, Plevneliev said that none of them had been associated with State Security.
According to the Dossier Commission, Stoyanov was registered as an agent in July 1988 at the age of 25 when he was with State Security at the Sofia city police department. His code name was agent “Mladenov”.
When he was appointed Deputy Minister in charge of energy, Stoyanov returned from the United States where he had been working as a financier and consultant.
Local media noted that Stoyanov had been a member of the “Bulgarian Easter” group in the era of the Saxe-Coburg government and had been a manager in Tobacco Capital Partners at the time of a bid for the privatisation of Bulgartabac that had been thwarted by the opposition of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
(Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
