Globsec

"We clearly saw an attack on the parliamentary republic. No one can afford to urge Bulgaria to not have a regular government, no one can put the budget and people's money in the background because of their personal power ambitions.

"The Kremlin's disinformation and interference in the internal affairs of Eastern European countries is a huge problem for all of Europe. Attempts at destabilization are made by activating local politicians and strengthening autocracy at the expense of democracy. All this is done with a single goal - to make Ukraine's victory more difficult and Europe to weaken".

James Rubin, special envoy and coordinator of the Center for Global Engagement at the US State Department, will visit Bulgaria this week, and according to the official announcement, his mission is "to strengthen support for initiatives to combat disinformation."

"The only solution to the war is for Russia to leave Ukraine completely, and there must be no compromise on this issue. Any other option would mean frozen conflict and continuing instability." This was stated by Prime Minister Kiril Petkov during the international security forum GLOBSEC in Bratislava.

To many, this comes as no surprise. Observers point out that a peculiar "question everything" mentality has taken hold among Slovaks - a reference to the motto of RT, the television channel and website formerly known as Russia Today that's described by the New York Times as "a case study in the complexity of modern propaganda".

Liberal democracies enjoy little support in much of Central and Eastern Europe, according to a survey conducted in ten countries of the region, Politico writes today.

And when, in February 2018, the country was convulsed by the first murder of a journalist in independent Slovakia, protesters again came out in defence of independent journalism and against the cosy ties between business, crime and politics that made the killing possible.

But while Slovak police have set up a Facebook page to debunk hoaxes and civil society organisations try to explain the dangers of information wars and widespread media illiteracy, some social media users are taking matters into their own hands.

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev has called for the creation of a genuine European energy market.

He has added Europe urgently needs to establish the Energy Union (a project embraced by the current EU Commission) based on interconnectivity and preventing the use of natural gas as a weapon.

President Rosen Plevneliev will attend and take part in the 11th edition of the Globsec forum due on April 15-17 in Bratislava, Slovakia, his press office has said.