Aleksandar Angelov Nikolov

Public record

Compiled from publications and official records as of 23.10.2026. Every statement links to its source; claims made by others are marked as such, with who makes them. Quotations in English are our translation.

Corruption and scandals

• Charge of wilful mismanagement over the gas contracts. The prosecution charges him with deliberate mismanagement – failing to supervise the work of Lyudmil Yotsov as head of Bulgargaz. The investigation concerns damage to the company of over 88 million leva, caused immediately after Russian gas supplies stopped, at the end of April and in May 2022. The pre-trial proceedings were opened on 30 August by order of a Sofia City prosecutor on materials from DANS, to which GERB had sent a report against officials of the Petkov cabinet. The preventive measure is a signature bond. After questioning he says the charge results from his refusal to bend under Gazprom's pressure and that the public interest was fully respected throughout his term. — News.bg, 08.02.2023
• His successor claims the contracts breached the law. The caretaker energy minister Rosen Hristov, his successor in the post, tells News.bg the day after the charge that many gas contracts were concluded in breach of the Energy Act, which requires supplies of under 12 months to be contracted only through competitive procedures. Asked whether these were unlawful acts by Nikolov, he answers: „Точно така“ (exactly; our translation). The memorandum with Gemcorp was signed the same way, without European Commission approval and without internal procedures having started – „един такъв модел на поведение, който със сигурност не е законен“ (a pattern of behaviour that is certainly not lawful; our translation). He stresses that he is not taking over the role of the prosecution and the courts. — News.bg, 09.02.2023

Other

• His written answer to DB's questions on State Security was registered a day before an article counted him among those who had not answered. Actualno lists the ministers Grozdan Karadzhov, Atanas Atanasov, Aleksandar Nikolov, Bozhidar Bozhanov and Daniel Lorer as the only ones who, at the time of publication, had not answered the questions of Democratic Bulgaria MPs about former State Security staff in their ministries. The parliamentary control register, however, records Nikolov's written answer to the question of Martin Dimitrov and Georgi Ganev under 13.06.2022, a day earlier. In it the minister states that 48 ministry staff have access to classified information constituting a state secret and that no affiliation with State Security, and no risk or dependence from a security point of view, has been established so far. — Actualno, 14.06.2022, National Assembly, question No. 47-254-06-1717 of 02.06.2022, Answer of the Minister of Energy (PDF)