Informing about recent research about the issues affecting the Romanian and Bulgarian Black Sea fleets, Bulgarian newspaper Dnevnik emphasizes the impact of Kremlin disinformation campaigns to destabilize those societies.
The paper “NATO’s Selective Sea Blindness – Assessing the Alliance’s New Navies” by Thomas-Durell Young, published in the Naval War College Review outlines a range of issues affecting the ability of Bulgaria and Romania to defend against Russian policies in the Black Sear region, which has become increasingly more aggressive after the occupation of Crimea.
The navies of these two recent NATO members have not been modernized according to the previously set schedule, because the governments don’t allocate sufficient funds, so even the newly purchased vessels don’t spend the minimum time at sea necessary for their combat readiness. In Bulgaria, internal political discord about the vision of the future of the armed forces have left the army and the fleet with no clear direction and guidelines how to conduct the reforms. The situation in the Black Sea region is further complicated with the “unpredictability” of Turkey.
The Dnevnik article specifically stresses that Young’s research cites the warnings from previous analyses by security experts Bugajski and Doran about the influence of Kremlin-generated propaganda in Romania and Bulgaria. According to these researchers this propaganda exploits the topics of bad governance in both countries, widespread corruption and the increasing social inequalities. The basic thesis propagated by Moscow is that these two countries got nothing special by introducing market economy and the EU membership.
Moscow media constantly claim that the membership in the NATO and EU has not improved the living conditions of the ordinary Bulgarians and Romanians. Domestic factors sponsored by the Kremlin lead campaigns against the secular character of the Bulgarian and Romanian states, against the liberal values, in order to incite nationalism in order to increase the distance between the disoriented citizens and the European project, Dnevnik writes.
Russia constantly increases the mistrust between these two NATO members, in order to inhibit their abilities to act together in the military sphere. Russia utilizes different forms of pressure, including the energy sector, to force Sofia out of regional security formats, which can help Bulgaria build effective naval defense capabilities.
