Interview by Elizabeth Dafinova
Q: Mr. Leonidov, Georgi Stoev’s last book (Once Upon A Time In The East) was published a few days ago. Is it his legacy or revenge?
A: It can be called a legacy. I think it is his best book ever. As for revenge, I think not, he wasn’t that kind of person. But I am sure that the book can be translated and even filmed. It presents a very realistic picture of post-communist Bulgaria grounded in hard facts. Nothing was made up. There is a blend of autobiographic portrayal and the lives of the people around him, their ambitions, their insecurities, the numbing dullness of the environment. Most importantly, he writes about the State Security and the militia of the day.
Q: This appears to be Stoev’s only book, in which he doesn’t mention his main characters’ names – the crime boss Madjo, General Luyben Gotsev, the Margin Bros…
A: There are no names, but you can tell who’s who.
Q: Why did he decide not to mention names?
A: He wrote this book before the series, which the Weekend (newspaper) published, but he decided it was too “smart” for the average reader. At the same time Georgi had an agreement with the police and prosecutors. He had told them he was prepared to testify that Madjo had ordered him to make hits on inconvenient persons. At the time he was relying on Rumen Petkov, but later became disappointed in him because he ordered the prosecution to stop investigating Madjo.
Q: The reporter Margarita Mihneva claims that Georgi was never a thug, but he worked for the mafia, meaning that he was low in the hierarchy. She supposes that his “colleagues”, low-level criminals, killed him and not the characters in his books.
A: What difference does it make where he stood? If you read his last book you will see that he was highly intelligent with diverse interests. Who killed him is another matter. And why did they kill him now? Right after his death the prosecutors started talking – “yes, he came but refused to cooperate with us, yes, but he wanted us to arrest Madjo first and then he would talk, he refused protection” but he may not even have been offered any. Who can prove anything now? As for Mihneva’s opinion, there are two versions. One is that he did it for the money. The other is that someone ordered him to write what he did. I think he wanted to clear his name because he was a brave man. He was the only one who paid for the truth with his life.
Q: Why did Stoev attack Madjo? It was almost an obsession for him, just like the Monterey circle…
A: He said that Monterey ruled Bulgaria. He considered Luyben Gotsev to be the Godfather; I have no evidence of this. But Georgi was sure that he was right. He wanted to hit the oligarchs where it hurt, the people “in the shadows”. Madjo is their favorite, that is why only he survived, only he has the privilege to travel abroad and return home whenever he wishes, like someone is protecting him. Nobody tried to take his business or kill him. Stoev believed Madjo had an agreement with the police facilitated by the oligarchs, his mediators. Madjo has a big embassy behind him and protection because he provided vital information about drug traffic to save himself. Like any tired crime boss, he wants peace. All other major crime bosses were killed or went into hiding. Stoev used to say, “The mafia days are gone. We did the dirty work, risked our lives, racked up sins, beat up and blackmailed people. When the first private restaurants and shops opened the oligarchs ordered us to find the owners, threaten or assault them, take their money and pass it up the food chain. Now the time of the oligarchs has come. They will come out into the open. They are the ones who invite the president to dance at their weddings, I mean Georgi Gergov. Where did they get all their money? From us. They are clean, and we’re the dirty Mafiosi. Now that the mafia is gone as an organization Bulgaria has the worst to look forward to. The oligarchs will take what’s left of the country’s wealth.” I asked him if the police were involved in organized crime. He said, “How could they do that? All they did was sit around in their offices.” The State Security didn’t play a part as a whole either. Very few SS officials were godfathers.
Q: Who killed Georgi Stoev?
A: Those under suspicion have motives – Madjo, General Gotsev, Rumen Petkov. They’d be idiots to do it at the time of the MI scandal. Someone else did it – he framed them, he got rid of the witness, and he got Rumen Petkov dismissed. It was a world scandal. The main attack was on Petkov. I think he failed to pay the sponsors of the Socialist Party back because he couldn’t steal from the police. You can steal from energy, road construction and so on. Rumen Ovcharov (ex-minister of energy) didn’t want to pay them off and lost his job. But Petkov was the treasurer of the BSP. Someone wanted to get rid of Petkov and the occasion was brilliant.
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