Todor Tagarev

From 1982 to 1986, Tagarev served as an Air Weapons Officer with the Twenty-fifth Fighter-Bomber Regiment of the Air Force of Bulgaria at Cheshnegirovo. He was a lecturer at the Georgi Benkovski Airforce Institute from 1989 to 1992. From 1994 to 1998 he was a research worker at the Institute of Management and Systems Research and the Institute of Space Research of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, where he continued to work as a senior research worker from 2002 to 2004. From 1999 to 2001 he was the director of the Defence Planning Directorate and the Armaments Policy Directorate in the Ministry of Defense. From 2004 to 2008 he was the head of the Department of Defense Management at the Georgi Rakovski Military Academy. From 2005 to 2008 Todor Tagarev was a member of the NATO Research and Technology Board and a national representative in its Systems Analysis and Research Panel. He has considerable experience in leading and participating in international and national interdisciplinary research on security and defence issues. His scientific and applied publications have been translated into Arabic, Armenian, Bahasa, Georgian, Dari, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian, Hungarian and French. Since 2008 he has been in the Institute of Parallel Information Processing of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, now the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, as Head of the Information Technology in Security Section and the Centre for Security and Defence Management. In September 2009 – 2010 he was Advisor to the Minister of Defense on Strategic Defence Management.

Tagarev was first appointed as the Minister of Defense by President Rosen Plevneliev on 13 March 2013 as part of the Caretaker Government of Marin Raykov.^[1]

On 6 June 2023 Tagarev was sworn in as the new Minister of Defense as part of the newly formed Denkov Government.

On the night of the 17th of September, a military-use drone, which was 3m in length and carried an 82mm mine-explosive was marooned on the shore of Bulgaria in the coastal town of Tyulenovo.^[2] On the morning of the 18th of September, the drone was de-activated by a team of explosive experts, who cordoned off the area.^[3]

In an initial briefing at the Ministry of Defense, Tagarev underlined that the drone had not been caught by the Air-Defense Radars and had most likely been marooned to the shore of Bulgaria.^[4]

During an emergency briefing at the Parliamentary Defense Committee, Tagarev confirmed that the drone was "most likely" connected to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, being marooned to the coast of Bulgaria after an estimated 2 weeks of being downed.^[5] Tagarev claimed that it was impossible to establish whether the drone was of Russian or Ukrainian origin.^[6] He further stated that all protocol in regards to the handling of explosive devices were maintained while removing the explosive and handling the drone.^[7]

The opposition parties (Vazrazhdane, BSP, ITN) called on Tagarev to resign, accusing the MoD of a slow reaction time and a lack of professionalism.^[8] Co-chair (at the time) of the DPS Parliamentary Group, Delyan Peevski, similarly demanded an explanation for the minister about the drone.^[9] Vice President Iliana Iotova, similarly called the response of Tagarev "unsatisfactory".^[10] Tagarev, in turn, called the demands for his resignation unreasonable.^[11]

During an interview on the 24th of September, 6 days after the incident, Tagarev underlined the fact that the origin of the drone remained unknown, although its presence in Bulgarian territorial waters was "most likely" unintentional, and defended the work of the explosive experts in carrying out the controlled explosion.^[12]

During Yordanov Day, traditionally held on the 6th of January, it is customary for a blessing of the Bulgarian Armed Forces battle banners to take place, under the supervision of the President, Cabinet Ministers, Members of the Committee for Defense and National Security and Chairs of the Parliamentary Groups.

During the celebration of Yordanov Day in 2024, an invite was not extended by the Ministry of Defense to any Members of Parliament, with the exception of the Chairman of the National Assembly, Rosen Zhelyazkov, who demanded the Minister of Defense explain the omission.^[13] Tagarev's office initially denied that protocol was breached and claimed that all invitations were released.^[14] However, in a later statement it was confirmed that a mistake had been made by the staff member responsible for the release of invitations, with the staff member subsequently resigning their position within the Ministry.^[15]

Head of the DPS group in the Bulgarian Parliament, Delyan Peevski accused Tagarev of "humiliating" the Bulgarian parliament^[16] and later called on Targarev to "take personal responsibility" instead of "hiding behind innocent staff-workers".^[17] BSP MP, Borislav Gutsanov, claimed that this was "another example why this person is a threat to our country's national security" and called on Tagarev to resign.^[18]

Targarev's behaviour as Minister was defended by the responsible staff member, who took full responsibility for the error and called Tagarev "the most competent and honourable Minister of Defense".^[19] Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov similarly defended the Minister, claiming that the "political offensive" against him had nothing in common with "a mistake by a staff member" and that Tagarev had a positive contribution to the modernization of the Bulgarian Armed Forces.^[20]