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After nearly four decades of Communism in Bulgaria, Soviet influence is as pervasive as ever. Although Bulgarian émigrés insist that their fellow countrymen chafe under Soviet domination, there is scant evidence to support their view. In Sofia, Soviet Ambassador Nikita Tolubeyev serves as a kind of proconsul, channeling Moscow's instructions to Bulgarian officials. "The Soviets run everything in the country, from the subway system to the secret service," says Stefan Sverdlev, a colonel in the Bulgarian security service until he defected in 1971. Bulgaria's Durzhavna Sigurnost, with its headquarters on General Gurko Street in downtown Sofia, is organized along the lines of the KGB. Each of the DS's five departments has its own KGB "adviser," along with 20 or so KGB officers in its ranks. Many of the 30,000 officers of the DS have been trained by the KGB in the Soviet Union. Interior Minister Dimiter Stoyanov, who oversees the DS, reportedly has studied at the KGB Higher Intelligence School outside Moscow and is considered a protégé of Yuri Andropov, who was chief of the Soviet agency at the time. Says former CIA Director Richard Helms: "It is well known in intelligence circles that, point one, the Bulgarian service is closest to the KGB of any satellite, and point two, that it has the reputation of being the most obedient."
As in other East-bloc nations, the KGB runs training camps in Bulgaria. One such center, according to another former DS colonel, is located near Birimirtsi, seven miles north of Sofia. Disguised as a pig farm, the grounds include a four-story building in which agents are given instruction before their missions and debriefed afterward. The camp is reserved solely for foreigners, including Turks, Greeks, Palestinians and West Germans. Many recruits have police records and might welcome a new identity or might be blackmailed into performing odious tasks.
The two agencies are so well integrated that in the late 1960s the head of the DS felt the need to establish a separate branch for the protection of Bulgarian agents only. As a countermove, the KGB decreed that another branch could bug or trail any member of the DS, including its chief. Western intelligence officials believe that in foreign cities the head of Balkantourist, the Bulgarian tourist office, works for the DS, while officials of Balkan Air, the state airline, work directly for the KGB. Says Sverdlev: "Since the Bulgarian security service is completely under the thumb of the Soviets, the real question is how the Russians use them."
For just about anything, according to Western intelligence officials. In the past, the Bulgarians have admitted sending arms to leftist insurgents or liberation movements in Angola, Viet Nam, Algeria, Mozambique and South Africa. Bulgarian ships and planes have been caught smuggling weapons into Lebanon, Yemen, Chile and Tanzania. Many of the deals are handled by government-sanctioned foreign-trade companies, notably a Sofia-based firm called Kintex.