Bulgarian Ambassador to Washington Georgi Panayotov has resigned more than a year before his term expired, writes BG VOICE. He will depart from Washington on April 29. There has been talk of his removal for failing to cope with his work as ambassador for more than a year, but he managed to buy time due to the political instability in Bulgaria and the series of caretaker governments. Even as Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel was preparing his replacement, but this failed after the rotation in the GERB-PPDB government did not happen.
At the end of March, Panayotov was summoned to Sofia, where he was told that he had to resign. Instead of recalling, which would have caused a diplomatic shake-up, they suggested that he resign.
Panaytov made a bunch of blunders in office, but he also failed to achieve any significant achievements in his nearly three years in office. However, the formal reason for his resignation was the scandal with our honorary consul in Washington state, Elka Ruskov. It turned out that she does not live there and, according to US rules, is not entitled to hold this honorary position. When in June of last year the State Department asked about Ruskov's permanent residency, Panayotov actively participated in misleading the Americans along with her. He did not inform the Foreign Ministry about the check. All this became clear after an investigation that the Foreign Ministry began in January after a signal from a Bulgarian from Seattle. The government is expected to remove Ruskov as honorary consul within days.
During his time in Washington, Panayotov failed to achieve significant achievements in relations between Bulgaria and the US, and the moves were mainly made from Sofia. And while Romania has a social agreement and the abolition of visas (although temporarily suspended by the Trump administration), Bulgaria has not made significant progress on these issues. Opportunities for military production and maintenance in our country have been missed, related to the new F-16 fighters. According to the leader of the VMRO Krasimir Karakachanov, as acting Minister of Defense, it was Panayotov who agreed to postpone the delivery of the aircraft by 2 years, which caused dissatisfaction in Bulgarian society. A few months later, Panayotov was appointed ambassador to Washington.
Instead of significant achievements, Panayotov's mandate will be remembered for a series of blunders. One of his last attempts to make a positive PR also turned into a farce. In early April, he announced that a resolution had been submitted to the US Congress to declare March 2025 as "Bulgarian-American Heritage Month" to honor the contributions of Bulgarian immigrants and their descendants in the United States. The probability that the proposed Resolution 291 will be adopted by Congress is less than zero, and traditionally the US legislature does not adopt acts that are valid retroactively. “What is the point of March being gone?”, ask astonished Bulgarians on Facebook under the post of our embassy in Washington.
In November last year, BG VOICE revealed that our ambassador had lost the trust of the American side. They delicately informed the Bulgarian side that they did not want him to attend a meeting in September between then-Foreign Minister Maria Gabriel and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, which took place in Washington.
A graduate of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Panayotov was surprisingly named acting defense minister by one of the acting cabinets in 2022. During his short period in office, he was investigated and punished for violating public procurement rules. His brother Todor Panayotov, on the other hand, was exposed as a State Security collaborator who owns a large tourist site in Pomorie. He was an unlicensed employee at the Ministry of Interior's Burgas branch under the PGU and worked in the services under the pseudonym Drinov, and was discovered after an inspection of municipal councilors in Pomorie in 2013.
When Panayotov was appointed ambassador, the American side delayed granting his agrement for two months. A day more is a delicate refusal in diplomacy, but the delay was even then interpreted as a signal of Americans' concerns about Panayotov's nomination. Before leaving for Washington, he defined his biggest challenge as restoring the trust lost over the past few years with the United States. It seems that he has now lost theirs.
Panayotov did not have much chance of improving his situation under the new administration of Donald Trump. Our ambassador often commented on the internal party problems of the two parties, contrary to the good diplomatic tone. That's why the Foreign Ministry banned him from making public appearances without their explicit consent back in April 2023.
In front of NOVA TV, Panayotov commented on the race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump as follows: “There will be no significant difference for Bulgaria, but there will be nuances, because these are different people with different approaches and positions. I cannot presume to say which is the better scenario for Bulgaria. The truth is that Biden belongs to that generation that grew up during the Cold War. Trump also belongs to it, because their age difference is not great. What is characteristic of Biden is that his aspiration to protect democracy and freedom in the world, for America to be the guardian of democracy, is more clearly expressed. With Trump, he perhaps has a more businesslike approach.“ In the same interview, Panayotov provoked more ridicule, admitting that he informs himself about events in the US by phone.
Panayotov was among the few ambassadors from the European Union who did not attend the party conferences of the Democrats and Republicans in the summer. Diplomats used the meetings to establish close contacts with advisers and people from the teams of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in anticipation of the next administration. Panayotov, however, had not notified the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the events and is not participating in them.
Sofia has long questioned Panayotov's work, but due to the series of elections and temporary cabinets, he is escaping responsibility. During his term, there has been no progress in the negotiations for a social agreement, and the issue of abolishing visas is being handled from Sofia.
Panayotov's term will also be remembered for the colossal blunder on March 3, 2023, when he illuminated the Frederick Douglass Bridge in Washington in the colors of the Russian flag. At the beginning of his term, he almost embroiled Bulgaria in a scandal with Germany after accusing their airline, Lufthansa, of discrimination due to a problem with his son's flight. Panayotov wrote a long post on Facebook with accusations against the Germans, which was widely reported in the Bulgarian media, but later turned out to be unfounded.
Panayotov's inaction in resisting Macedonian lobbying in the US was defined as dangerous for Bulgaria. In an analysis, the BGNES news agency wrote: The incompetence of our ambassador to the US leads to crimes against Bulgaria. The lack of basic knowledge of national security and interests leads to serious mistakes bordering on crimes on the part of the Bulgarian ambassador to the US, Georgi Panayotov, who allowed an anti-Bulgarian document to be considered in the US Senate.