Bulgaria's PM - 'Armani-Clad Tough Guy' in WikiLeaks Cable - Report

Bulgarian PM Borisov - an "Armani-clad tough guy", according the description of a former US Ambassador. File photo

A 2005 diplomatic cable by former US Ambassador to Bulgaria John Beyrle is reported to have described Bulgaria's future PM Boyko Borisov as an "Armani-clad tough guy."

This has been reported by Bivol.bg, the Bulgarian partner of WikiLeaks, which says that in the same cable Beyrle states that Borisov, back then still a Chief Secretary of the Interior Ministry, is inefficient against organized crime but his close ties with the media boost tremendously his popularity.

Beyrle is further reported to have written that Borisov has been very cooperative with the US intelligence services on specific cases but that not one of them involves some of the prominent organized crime figures in Bulgaria.

Bivol's report of a 2005 diplomatic cable by Beyrle is dedicated to an interview of another former US Ambassador, James Pardew, in a major Bulgarian daily earlier this week, in which he slams the Bulgarian politicians as pretending to be "tough guys" while shying away from any real actions against organized crime.

Bivol.bg has not released the text of the 2005 cable in question but has referred again to the May 9, 2006, cable by Beyrle entitled "Bulgaria's Most Popular Politician: Great Hopes, Murky Ties," already released by WikiLeaks and Bivol.bg in May 2011.

In it, Beyrle famously states that Borisov has been implicated in "serious criminal activity and maintains close ties to LUKoil and the Russian embassy", and that the US should be cooperating with him but should never forget who they are "dealing with."  

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