Countercurrent Affairs

On 30^th September 2026, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev spoke to Euronews on their Defence & Space Summit in Brussels. Here are the key points from the interview with Radev and what they mean in the broader context of Kremlin propaganda and the “collective West” narrative.

• “It is typical and very sad that if you divert from the political mainstream, you are labelled immediately being a pro-Russian. This is not the reality! I don’t care about supporting Russia. I care about realistic approach to finally find a road to peace as soon as possible.”

In typical Kremlin fashion Radev plays the victim. Putin excuses his war in Ukraine claiming that Russia is under attack and fighting for its survival. Similarly, Radev claims that he is blamed for being pro-Russian because he is diverting from the mainstream while seeking peace (as opposed to the “mainstream” that wants to keep fighting by supporting Ukraine).

• “The European Leadership [offered] to continue fighting […] We must deliver more and more weapons and money. So, what is the result year and a half later? The core strategy of this approach was to bring Russia to the negotiation table by force. So peace by force. So, what is the result year and a half later? […] Now we see result – hundreds of thousands move victims, devastation of the country.”

Radev has already used the Kremlin-coined phrase “the collective West” in a speech in Bulgaria. Now, he is portraying the European Leadership as the aggressor, because they “offered to continue fighting”. He frames the support for Ukraine as an act of violence. This fits Putin’s narrative that Russia is a country under attack and all he does is to defend it from the “collective West”.

• “Do you know, I am afraid about the latest Russian strategy because they have shifted their strategy. […] And Ukraine started running out of people. What happened last 2 years – Ukraine succeeded to survive the lack of people by developing modern technologies and advantage in tactical drones […] So they stopped the Russian invasion on the front line […] Russia realised that it is too risky frontal attack, loosing people in the front line, they started applying inside-outside warfare, because they have a smashing advantage in long-range operational strategic strike weapons […] They lifted the altitude of operation. […] You must have huge number of fighters and ground-based air defence to counter them – Ukrainians don’t have enough. Now Russia is sweeping their economy, their energy system, transportation.”

He portrays Ukraine as the losing side and Russia as a force that can’t be stopped, so everyone should fear it. This serves the Kremlin narrative for the might of their army capabilities. However, they are struggling with the war in Ukraine for almost 5 years now, when initially they were anticipating the “special military operation” to last for a very short period of time. Currently, Ukraine is attacking deep in Russian territory and hitting key infrastructure. Radev completely ignores this points.

Furthermore, what Radev skips to mention is the so-called “meat-grinder”, where young soldiers from the Russian side are often sent after a short miliary training. A lot of them lose their lives very quickly.

• “No one is raising the question od nuclear risk. Does it exist? May be not. I don’t know. But this is a risk. […] We always need to think about worst case scenario. We have been trying to achieve a conventional victory over the biggest nuclear power!”

Again, straight out of the Kremlin propaganda playbook, Radev talks how Europe must open channels of communication with Russia, because of the threat of nuclear weapons. He portrays the countries supporting Ukraine as those refusing diplomatic contact with Russia, while at the same time they are powerless against the Federation’s weapons.

• “I am not an advocate of Putin and Lavrov at all, at all, but her warned a month ago, I guess that if there is a war between Europe and Russia, this war will be totally different and very short.”

Here Radev directly quotes Lavrov aiming to further amplify his threats against Europe. He refused to condemn Lavrov’s words and instead said that “we need to have this into account”.

• “You mentioned hybrid warfare with drones. It is extremely difficult to detect these drones. […] That’s why we need to think as soon as possible to put this war to an end.”

Instead of speaking about how unacceptable is for Russia to conduct hybrid warfare attacks on European soil, Radev suggests giving into what some call “state sponsored terrorism” committed by the Russian state and to seek their mercy to stop the war they themselves started.

• “So, what is your proposal? To send a very hard warning to Russia? I agree. OK, what about escalation?”

Radev says the Europe should not stand up against Russia because of fear of escalation. This one more time portrays Russia as a dominant unbeatable power, that everyone should obey to regardless of their actions. Radev instead offers “to sit down and discuss”.

• Radev describes the political consequences of the war in Ukraine as “we have rise of populism, we have political instability in many countries in Europe, and we must calculate how this will end, if we don’t change out strategy and out approach to this war.”

Radev makes an interesting point here, considering he is known as populist himself, and his party Progressive Bulgaria is also branded “populist”. His behaviour as a PM so far has been one to sought division in society and in geopolitical context. Earlier this year, Radev linked his opposition to fascism and branded all his critics “trolls”.

Radev is making the proposal to kneel in front of Russia’s demands in the name of “peace” and to accept whatever demands they have in order to end the war. Radev recently said in Bulgaria that “Europe will hardly exist against Russia for long” and here we just see this statement being expanded and further amplified by the use of Kremlin propaganda narratives.