Why Putin Is Watching Bulgaria's Election Closely

Bulgarian voters will go to the polls on Sunday for the fifth time in two years, hoping for an as-yet elusive result from the ongoing contest between Boyko Borissov of the center-right GERB party and Kiril Petkov, who leads the We Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria anti-corruption coalition (PP-DB). Both are former prime ministers.

Bulgaria, a NATO nation since 2004 and a European Union member since 2007, has—at least publicly, been lagging behind its alliance and union allies in supporting Ukraine in its year-long defense against Russia's full-scale invasion.

Hamstrung by months of caretaker governments, public Russophilia, endemic corruption, and a president who appears sympathetic to the Kremlin, Bulgaria is one European nation where Russian President Vladimir Putin will be looking for signs of fractures in the Western unified front on Ukraine.