"Rumen Radev began his malicious activity in the army and the state by running for president directly from the general post, thereby violating democratic principles."
This was commented by Colonel Vladimir Milenski in an analysis published in BGNES.
"The Bulgarian army has been in need of minds and a little cleaner hands and cleaner consciences for a long time.
Before we talk about the indisputable malevolent role of this president, we must repeat and repeat it until everyone understands it: the death of a serviceman in peacetime is absolutely unacceptable and the cause of such a death is only the incompetence of the command or, even more bad – deliberate violation of military principles.
There is hardly a more drastic example of this than the peacetime deaths of two military pilot officers. And what and who needed it:
for unnecessary in any military logic “they showed“,
demonstration of unclear what, since we know how appallingly few flying hours per year the Bulgarian military pilots have. And in whose interest? The logic is self-evident - in the interest of the political measures of President Radev.
And that the Bulgarian Army and in particular our Air Force have uncritically accepted the task of organizing an air show, without the Air Force having the necessary training, nor can such a function be derived from their mission, role and tasks that are theirs assigned by the constitution and laws – and I dare say that several senior commanders have accepted it and with sincere satisfaction, speaks unequivocally about the heavy political dependence imposed by this president on the high military command of the Bulgarian Army, of course with the tacit consent and complicity of the executive power for several governments.
What is the president's role in all this? Extremely harmful, I would say with devastating consequences.
He began his malicious activity by running for the political position of president directly from his military career. In any developed democracy this is unacceptable and senior officers are allowed to hold political positions after 7 to 10 years of “political quarantine”. Because the opposite inevitably leads to political binding of the army, or at least of that part of it from which this general originates. We didn't invent this – other nations have suffered it and therefore have introduced this rule of “quarantine”. And because we do not like to learn from the mistakes of others, this rule is not introduced by law. And the effect of politicization of the Air Force, and now of the entire Bulgarian Army, is present. The generals are appointed by the president – don't we remember – without his “blessing“ no general has a chance to develop according to his military qualities and abilities, if he has not put them at the service of the political wishes of the former general and already second-term president Radev.
An unmistakable indicator that an army is politicized is when the commanders stop telling the whole truth from a military-expert position, start to keep silent about one or the other, or outright lie in the interest of a party, completely neglecting their military expertise. This is the end for these commanders, and soon – and of such an army. It becomes a political appendage of a party.
Generals begin to deal with politics instead of military training.
Military training – including the air force, in a word it ends, it is always insufficient, the army becomes ineffective and incompetent, unmotivated, unattractive for new personnel. But most importantly – in such an army the commanders never bear any real responsibility. On paper, they may be responsible, but the political umbrella is immediately stretched over them when their incompetence is revealed in any violation, be it a minor organizational failure, harm, up to a plane crash and human casualties. For such situations, they are immediately “located” guilty on the lower rungs of the ladder of command, and all too often the only ones to blame are the dead themselves. Mourning follows, tears in front of helpful television cameras.
The President personally saw to it that Mrs. Naplatanova, who happens to be the wife of the commander of the third air base, General Nikolay Rusev, was appointed as the chairman of the SEM. And the media umbrella over the Air Force now and over Rumen Radev's air force past seems well secured. Naturally, he does not see any moral conflict of interest in this.
And this disaster, unfortunately, is part of a series that, even more unfortunately, so far seems to be impressing the senior military and political leadership of the MoD and BA. There is no way the Minister of Defense and the Chief of Defense can stand by as impartial observers. I wonder how and when the investigators will dare to look into their responsibility and guilt? Because this irresponsible action was planned with their knowledge, consent and permission.
The symbiosis between Bulgarian politicians and Bulgarian admirals and generals is so dense that it poisons the Bulgarian army and is fatal for Bulgaria.
Let this not sound pompous – when you consider that the army and defense are like the roof and the fence of a house, and when the roof is leaking and the fence is broken and missing here and there, such a house is not pleasant to live in and people start to leave it and run away. And another doesn't want to come…
It's good to ask the president why he didn't stay after the incident happened – he will surely have “another point of view”, as for example about Crimea. Obviously, morality is not his strong point and he obviously prefers to steal only the laurels and where there are none, to create them himself, using the resources and the lives of the people in the Bulgarian army for these personal whims. When the going gets tough, he looks like he's not there. We have to figure it out – he's human, he worries.
Now he will probably get away with it again, until the next time they “show“ we lose another precious person. I don't even want to count what financial and material resources were lost together with these two dead officers, in order for President Radev to satisfy his macho political drive. I expect he has already ordered the investigators to get a tip to prove the pilots are guilty.
Immediate resignation of the Chief of Defense Admiral Evtimov, the Air Force Commander General Petrov and the Commander of the Third Air Base General Rusev. The Bulgarian army has long needed fresh minds and slightly cleaner hands and cleaner consciences. If these people are replaced, immediately, the system will begin to clean itself.
Someone will say – but now is not the time. On the contrary. It's right now. For everyone.
When in 1885, by order of the Russian emperor, all Russian officers left Bulgaria, our army was left with only its captains, on the eve of a certain war. And she has shown wonders of bravery and skill. Nothing prevents us from expecting that to happen now. As long as we have a little political courage and some military prowess left.
And, of course, organizing an independent investigation not only of the accident itself, but also of its genesis, while – with the participation of specialists from NATO allies – for example from the USA, Romania and Greece – to tell the Air Force and the Defense Headquarters how to get out of the embarrassment of investigating their own commanders, all the way to the supreme."
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FACTS recalls: Over the past 35 years, the Bulgarian political class has been slowly and with sadistic methodical destruction of the Bulgarian army and, in particular, the Bulgarian combat aviation.
Bulgarian politicians have no right to judge anyone but themselves for Bulgarian soldiers who died in accidents.