By EUDO CITIZENSHIP expert Vesco Paskalev

According to Eurostat, Bulgarian authorities granted Bulgarian (and EU) citizenship to 1700 applicants in 2012, with the biggest share of them – nearly one quarter – originating from Russia. Traditionally the greatest numbers were coming from Macedonia, Ukraine and Moldova, which all have sizeable populations who can claim ‘Bulgarian origin’ and get a fast track naturalisation on that ground.  

The facilitated naturalisation was both a matter of nationalist pride and a source of corruption, which recently lead to the dismissal of the head of the State Agency for the Bulgarians Abroad. On the other hand, Russians can rarely claim Bulgarian origin, but over the last decade many of them have acquired property in the country. Russians also represent the biggest share of persons to be granted residence permits in Bulgaria.

Read the news item in the Sofia Globe.