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ID. Director of Military Intelligence, Colonel Velko Atanasov (foreground) with Defense Minister Krassimir Karakachanov on the occasion of the 113th anniversary of the founding of the service on January 12, 2021.
The reformist approach to directing acting
of serious military intelligence encounters
resistance of the old intelligence, but why didn’t Radev
Issues a decree that appoints him holder?
It must have come as a surprise to many to learn that one of the country’s top secret services, military intelligence, has been sabotaged by two active recruits recruited by “resident” Ivan Iliev into his spy group for Russia.
Few people know that at the foot of Vitosha Mountain, in the Pavlovo district of Sofia, is the headquarters of our military intelligence. In fact, it should be exactly that way. Because nowhere in the world do security services like to be in the spotlight.
In Bulgaria, however, being away from the public’s attention also poses serious risks: by leaving it in oblivion, it may turn out that it has remained in a bygone era. This is more or less the situation with our military intelligence, whose headquarters is being rehabilitated today. Outside.
For renovation
in, middle
team, no
data
In the years after the Kosovo war, the service, then called Military Information, remained permanently calm. Bulgaria becomes a member of NATO and the ministry has a new leadership, which is in no rush with reforms. The head of military intelligence until 2010, Major General Plamen Studenkov, leaves office with his deputy for operational work, the general. Stefan Stefanov. In the following years, many bosses came for a short time who did not risk sudden changes.
It is interesting the recognition of the Minister of Defense in 2012, Gen. Anyu Angelov, who in response to a parliamentary question points out that more than 40% of the command personnel of the service have worked in it since socialism or are politically committed officers who would have difficulties to change the way you work.
In those years, an attempt was made to neglect the service and turn it into a small unit of the Ministry of Defense. This did not happen, but the next two incumbents of the director’s post, Brigadier Generals Svetoslav Daskalov and Plamen Angelov, failed to undertake radical reforms.
At the same time, in 2015 the first Military Intelligence Law was approved. This gives the media the opportunity to parade former military intelligence personnel, who push the thesis of the risk of purging the service. By defending the status quo, reserve officers are, in fact, deliberately and sentimentally, largely torpedoing efforts to reform the Military Information Service. It is believed that it was at this time that foreign intelligence services, especially from Russia, managed to find contacts behind the walls of Gen. Stefan Toshev 86 ”.
In hot August 2019, Colonel Velko Atanasov was appointed acting director of military intelligence, who until then was deputy director of the operational part. I like it
the youngest leader
in modern history
from service,
embarks on reforming the cumbersome structure of spy scouts. In August 2020, legislative changes were adopted aimed at transforming the secret institution into a modern intelligence structure of a member state of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
New regulations for the activity have been adopted, organizational and personnel changes are being implemented. At that time there was a change of generations: officers in the age range of 40 to 45 years were appointed to managerial positions. The name of the service has been changed to “Military Intelligence” and occupies an important place in the Defense Council as a key intelligence structure that provides the state leadership with the necessary advanced intelligence.
Velko Atanasov’s actions met with serious resistance from the former military intelligence. Logically, a leadership position is filled by an officer who did not graduate from service in his communist period. Obviously, its reformist approach also disturbs foreign residents.
It is not clear on what grounds, but President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief Rumen Radev, despite the Defense Council’s proposal of August 2020, does not issue a decree on the appointment of Acting Director Colonel Velko Atanasov to the post of chief. of the Military Intelligence Service. The head of state probably has reasons for not giving an answer, although his behavior should be interpreted as
Silent rejection
However, it is an indisputable fact that the unprecedented revelation of the group of six spies who worked in the interests of Russian intelligence would not have been possible without the active role of the Military Intelligence leadership itself. In this context, the silence of the head of state on the revelations about the spy scandal, which became known last Thursday, is worrying. Radev’s absence from the debate on these problematic cases raises the question of whether the president’s declared support for armed forces reform to establish Bulgaria’s place in NATO is in line with reality. So as not to end up with the Supreme Commander-in-Chief agreeing that the rehabilitation of military intelligence should be completed with just the façade.
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