Wearing T-shirts with Russian bears, waving flags with “Z” symbols and holding up pictures of Putin – the war in Ukraine hasn’t deterred Bulgarian Russophiles, who gathered in the center of the country on Sunday to show their support.

The Balkan nation — an EU and NATO member with historically close ties to Russia — still has many citizens nostalgic for the former communist regime.

The pro-Moscow rally came as Sofia prepares to return to the polls and the country grapples with its identity.

Hristo Ganev, a 60-year-old driver, had arrived at the event early on Sunday and bought a T-shirt with the Ukraine offensive “Z” at one of the many stalls selling jewelry and souvenirs.

“Without Russia, Bulgaria would not have existed,” he told AFP, referring to the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, in which Russia liberated Bulgaria from five centuries of Ottoman rule.

Ganev is married to a Russian he met while working in Siberia in the 1980s and says he supported President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

He believes in Putin’s claim that the troops are needed to “fight Nazism” and says he is even in favor of nuclear war “if that’s the price one has to pay to break free from American supremacy.”

Unlike in most other European countries, pro-Russian rallies regularly took place alongside pro-Ukrainian gatherings.

Sunday’s event was supposed to take place on the shore of Lake Koprinka – but the local mayor declined to host it due to Ukraine war sensitivities.

Instead, it took place half an hour away in a mountainous location overlooking the town of Kalofer.

“It’s the only free gathering in the world,” said Nikolay Malinov, head of the organization that brings together Bulgarian Russophiles.

Bulgarian prosecutors accused Malinov of spying for Moscow in 2019 – the same year Putin awarded him a state award, the Order of Friendship.

His idea of ??bringing Bulgarians together in an “international Russophile movement” also received approval from Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov when the two men met in Moscow recently, he said.

“For Bulgarians, loving Russia is like loving your sister, loving your mother,” he said on Sunday to great applause from the crowd.

Among the youngest to attend the rally was 17-year-old Georgi Ivanov, draped in a flag honoring Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

“I appreciate authoritarian regimes because they guarantee unity without worrying about ethnic and sexual minorities,” the high school student said, saying he doesn’t believe claims that Russian troops committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Most middle-aged Bulgarians learned Russian at school, understand the language and some regularly follow Russian news.

The two countries share close cultures with the Cyrillic alphabet and Orthodox Christianity.

During the communist years, Sofia was considered Moscow’s most loyal ally.

A participant in her 70s, who gave her name Veneta, carried a banner supporting referendums on joining Russia being held by pro-Moscow authorities in four Ukrainian regions.

She would welcome the same opportunity in Bulgaria, she told AFP.

A poll conducted in April showed that almost half of Bulgarians believed that Russia was not responsible for the situation in Ukraine, and many did not support the delivery of arms to Kyiv.

And a week before the parliamentary elections, many are worried about the country’s political direction.

“It’s unfortunate that the mostly Russophile Bulgarians let a handful of pro-Westerners govern them,” said 66-year-old Tatiana Ivanova, a Russian who has lived in Bulgaria for four decades.

The staunchly pro-European Prime Minister Kiril Petkov will seek to return to power in the upcoming October 2 elections.

He won the last election in November 2021 but his cabinet was overthrown by a motion of no confidence in June.

Conservative Boiko Borissov, who led the country almost continuously between 2009 and 2021, is the almost certain contender for victory.

But analysts warn he may struggle to form a coalition and some are predicting another poll in the coming months.