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| - Russian diplomats expelled for spying, Russians indicted for attempted murder -- Bulgaria has shaken up assumptions about its ties to Moscow in recent months and put itself at the heart of a global powerplay. Analysts say the expulsions and indictments would have been unthinkable in the past -- the former Soviet satellite has long sought to preserve economic and energy cooperation with Russia. "This is something new. We will see if it turns into a trend," Vessela Tcherneva of the Bulgarian office of the European Council on Foreign Relations think-tank told AFP. Political analyst Antony Todorov said Bulgaria was "at the centre of a Russian-American geopolitical conflict for redistribution of influence". The moves began in September last year when pro-Russian activist Nikolay Malinov was indicted for spying. Prosecutors said the former Bulgarian lawmaker had worked "to change Bulgaria's geopolitical orientation" and was funded by Konstantin Malofeev, a billionaire investment banker close to the Kremlin, who was also banned from entering Bulgaria. Then three members of the Russian embassy in Sofia were asked to leave over espionage claims and two more were denied entry. And last month, three unnamed Russians were charged with attempted murder over the 2015 poisoning of Bulgarian arms dealer Emiliyan Gebrev. "These untypical announcements of the prosecution will have an effect on public opinion," former Bulgarian ambassador to the US Elena Poptodorova told Radio Free Europe. "They will probably make the ordinary Bulgarians understand that Russia, as important as it is for us, is not our ally." Bulgaria, which the Russian Empire freed from five centuries of Ottoman rule in 1878, remained the most loyal Soviet Union satellite until the fall of communism in 1989. After joining the European Union and the NATO military alliance, the predominantly Christian Orthodox country of 7.1 million people continued to be torn between East and West. While conservative premier Boyko Borisov has been in power since 2009 on a pro-European line, President Rumen Radev is backed by the Bulgarian Socialist Party, traditionally close to Moscow. Russia's enduring influence also stems from its economic foothold in Bulgaria -- Moscow's investments are estimated to make up 11 percent of GDP. Russian companies have interests in key sectors such as telecommunications, media and real estate, according to Sofia-based think-tank Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD). In the energy sector, Bulgaria depends almost entirely on Russia for its natural gas, its sole nuclear power plant is Soviet-built and runs on Russian fuel and its sole oil refinery is owned by Russian giant Lukoil. Sofia angered the US -- which is pushing to limit Europe's reliance on Russian gas -- when it decided to build an extension of the TurkStream pipeline through its territory. TurkStream is a landmark project of Turkey and Russia to deliver Russian gas via the Black Sea. "For TurkStream, Prime Minister Borisov did the impossible, juggling the interests of Russia, the EU and the US," said Ilian Vassilev, a former Bulgarian ambassador to Moscow. Some analysts have interpreted the Russia-linked probes as Sofia's attempt to make up with Washington. On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused a Bulgarian judge of corruption and slapped a travel ban on him, in the first such measure by Washington in Bulgaria. "This is just the first name, and there will be others," US ambassador to Sofia Herro Mustafa said this week in a television interview. The judge had previously allowed Malinov, the pro-Russian activist, to travel to Russia -- to receive a state award from Russian President Vladimir Putin -- after he was already indicted for spying for Moscow. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said the award honoured Malinov's "contribution to the development of friendship and cooperation between our two countries" and said it would have "very negative consequences" if the gesture harmed ties. vs/ds/jza/jxb
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