In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov blamed the protests against him and the dispute with Macedonia on the Soviet Union and Russia, alleging that Russia linked oligarchs are trying to depose him by planting corruption allegations against him. Borisov insisted that the dispute with Macedonia originates from the communist era when, as he claims, the “Soviet Union and Bulgarian communists allowed the process of turning Bulgarians into Macedonians” after the Second World War.

This is part of the Bulgarian official position that Macedonians are Bulgarians who only adopted a Macedonian identity after the war. The country is now blocking Macedonia from opening EU accession talks until Macedonia accepts to rewrite its history.

Borisov presents himself as a pro-Western leader, who is fighting corruption in the country, trying to diversify gas imports and purchasing American weaponry, while his chief rival, socialist President Rumen Radev, is in the pocket of Russia.