PM Lauds Comedian Slated to Be New Bulgarian Consul in Chicago

Dimitar Tudzharov, aka Shkumbata (left) pictured here in the popular evening talk show of host Slavi Trifinov (right) on bTV. Photo by bTV

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has praised famous comedian Dimitar Tudzharov, aka Shkumbata, who will be appointed a new Bulgarian consul in Chicago, Illinois.

Tudzharov’s future appointment was made public over the weekend. He has an engineering degree but is popular as a comedian including as an impersonator of Bulgaria's former communist dictator Todor Zhivkov.

“Shkumbata has a lot of fans and is way more capable than many people appointed in the Bulgarian diplomatic corps in the recent years. This man makes a living with his talent, he is hard-working, he is a patriot, and I think he will do well among our community in Chicago. If you check out the last appointments to our Embassy in London, Shkumbata will certainly be much above their level,” Borisov told journalists Wednesday.

He did not explain what he meant. The latest appointment to the Bulgarian Embassy in London was Lyubomir Kyuchukov, Deputy Foreign Minister in the Stanishev government (2005-2009) from the quota of the Bulgarian Socialist Party.

Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry has not revealed the origin of the nominations to appoint consuls that are not part of the Bulgarian diplomatic corps but said that Bulgaria’s Diaspora Minister Bozhidar Dimitrov has sent the Minister a letter supporting Tudzharov’s nomination.

Tudzharov is going to join the team of Bulgaria’s Consul General in Chicago Valentin Donchev, which also includes Lila Georgieva, whose posting as Bulgaria's consul in Chicago a year ago caused a bit of a splash, with a ripple effect back to her homeland.

The scandal erupted after Georgieva posted on her web site photos showing her clad in minimalist underpants.

Two years earlier, her superiors, confronting her with the revealing shots, had sentenced Georgieva to the diplomatic-service equivalent of Siberia - a year of pushing paper in Sofia, after which she passed over a chance to be consul in Brazil.

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