Key Takeaways: Bulgaria has officially adopted the euro, becoming the eurozone's 21st member. This move represents a significant strategic defeat for Russia, which spent years trying to block Sofia's deeper integration into the EU. The success highlights the limits of Moscow's hybrid tactics, including disinformation and political interference.
On January 1, Bulgaria gave up its 145-year-old national currency, the lev, and adopted the euro. While celebrated in Sofia and Brussels as a milestone for European integration, the move carries profound geopolitical weight. It marks a clear failure of sustained Kremlin efforts to keep Bulgaria within its perceived sphere of influence.
For Moscow, Bulgaria's eurozone membership is not a neutral economic event. It represents an irreversible anchoring of the country within the European project, constraining Russia's ability to exploit bilateral dependencies and sow division on the EU's eastern flank.
A Long-Standing Target of Russian Influence
Russia has historically viewed Bulgaria as contested ground, leveraging deep cultural, religious, and economic ties—notably energy dependence—to maintain influence. This persisted even after Bulgaria joined NATO and the EU in 2004 and 2007, respectively.
The Kremlin's influence toolkit in Bulgaria is extensive:
- Soft-power channels like the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, which maintains close ties with its Russian counterpart.
- Political proxies, most notably the far-right Revival party, which has an official cooperation agreement with Putin's United Russia.
- Economic leverage and covert financial networks used to fund interference.
From Russia's perspective, eurozone enlargement reduces opportunities for outside manipulation by tying member states closer together economically and politically.
The Rocky Road to the Euro
Bulgaria's path to adopting the euro was far from smooth. It entered the mandatory two-year pre-euro transition phase alongside Croatia in July 2020. While Croatia adopted the currency in 2023, Bulgaria's journey was repeatedly delayed until 2026.
These delays were driven by more than just technical hurdles like inflation. They were fueled by a surge in political and public resistance, actively stoked by Russian-linked influence operations. Bulgaria's stalled progress became a visible indicator of Moscow's disruptive power.
Russia's Interference Playbook
In the lead-up to the switch, Moscow deployed a familiar arsenal of hybrid tactics to derail the process.
1. Disinformation Campaigns
Russian-linked actors spent tens of millions of euros on propaganda, spreading alarmist and false claims through social media and sympathetic traditional outlets. Key narratives included:
- Euro adoption would trigger runaway inflation.
- Citizens' savings would be confiscated by Brussels.
- Bulgaria would lose its national identity and sovereignty.
A late 2025 Eurobarometer poll reflected this success, showing 49% of Bulgarians opposed to the euro, with only 42% in favor.
2. Political Sabotage and Protests
Pro-Russian political forces, led by the Revival party, legitimized these narratives. They organized anti-euro rallies featuring Russian flags and, in a dramatic escalation, stormed the EU mission in Sofia in February 2025, attacking the building with firecrackers and Molotov cocktails.
The party also pushed for a national referendum on euro adoption—a move rejected by parliament as incompatible with EU treaty commitments.
3. Institutional Erosion
By casting doubt on the motives of EU and Bulgarian institutions, these campaigns aimed to deepen public cynicism, polarize society, and weaken trust in democracy. Bulgaria's chronic political instability—with seven snap elections in four years—made it particularly vulnerable to this strategy.
A Victory for Pro-European Resilience
Despite the intense pressure, Bulgaria's pro-European political forces ultimately prevailed. Successive governments, including the staunchly pro-EU coalition We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria, completed the necessary legal and technical steps.
Key institutions withstood attempts to politicize the process. The country's entry into the eurozone serves as a critical reminder: hybrid interference, while potent, does not inevitably determine outcomes when met with sustained political will and institutional continuity.
Bulgaria's adoption of the euro is not just a political success but also a strategic test.
The Battle is Not Over
The Kremlin's focus on Bulgaria is unlikely to diminish. The country is expected to hold another snap election later this year, reopening opportunities for foreign influence. Pro-Russian actors will seek to exploit any short-term difficulties from the currency transition—such as price adjustments or public confusion—to validate their previous warnings and blame the EU.
For the Bulgarian government and EU institutions, the challenge now is to effectively manage the transition and communicate its tangible benefits to the public. The goal is to ensure this historic step strengthens, rather than undermines, public confidence in European integration.
For now, January 1, 2026, stands as a clear setback for Moscow's ambitions to divide and weaken the European Union. It signals that the EU's gravitational pull remains formidable, even in the face of sustained contestation.