Branimir Nikolaev Balachev

Public record

Compiled from publications and official records as of 22.10.2026. Every statement links to its source; claims made by others are marked as such, with who makes them. Quotations in English are our translation.

Russia

• Member of the parliamentary friendship group with Russia. Svobodna Evropa writes that he was a member of the National Assembly's Bulgaria–Russia friendship group, including after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, that his name was removed from its page in June 2025, and that he gave bTV a different account of his membership. According to bTV, the day before its team met MPs, he and Nikolay Bratovanov were listed in the group on the parliament website, and then: "Quite unexpectedly, however, and without any trace, their names disappeared from the parliament's official page" (our translation). GERB's press office declined to arrange an interview, saying he was on sick leave, although he was at work. According to Mediapool, a check on the parliament website shows continuous membership in earlier assemblies as well. — Svobodna Evropa, 29.09.2025, bTV Novinite, June 2025

Corruption and scandals

• Broke quarantine to appear in a court case. 24 Chasa writes that in early 2022, as a GERB MP, he broke his COVID quarantine and appeared as a lawyer in Varna Regional Court. Prosecutor Yordan Petrov of the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office refused to open pre-trial proceedings, calling the act insignificant and of public benefit. Interior Minister Rashkov, a political opponent of GERB and of Chief Prosecutor Geshev, accused him of shielding the MP, and the Interior Ministry appealed the refusal. According to Sega, Balachev admitted the violation, saying his tests were negative. The outcome of the appeal is not known. — 24 Chasa, March 2022
• Signal against regional governor Blagomir Kotsev. GERB's press centre, a political opponent of Kotsev, reports that in 2022 Balachev filed a signal with the Varna District Prosecutor's Office against the then regional governor. It alleges a conflict of interest over a contract with a private law firm worth 10,000 leva a month and possible hiring of staff of the private complex Horizont. The outcome of the signal is not known. — Focus, August 2022
• Statements about Varna mayor Blagomir Kotsev. Svobodna Evropa writes that in September 2025 Balachev told BNR that the mayor was himself to blame for being kept in custody. A Dnevnik check cited by the outlet found the claims untrue and contrary to the Constitution. In July of that year, according to Mediapool, the MP said the investigation against the mayor was only beginning, citing his membership of the parliamentary anti-corruption committee as the basis for this information. Kotsev, of PP-DB and a political opponent, is charged in a separate case. What followed the statement is not known. — Svobodna Evropa, 29.09.2025
• Defender of the chief prosecutor in the legal committee. Svobodna Evropa presents Balachev as Chief Prosecutor Geshev's main defender in the parliamentary legal committee, where he opposed a special mechanism for investigating him. The mechanism is the subject of legislative debate, and there has been no sanction against the MP. — Svobodna Evropa, 29.09.2025
• Remark attributed to him about murdered prosecutor Nikolay Kolev. Wikiquote attributes to him a remark in the 2023 debate on the mechanism for investigating the chief prosecutor, referring to the prosecutor murdered in 2002: "Nikolay Kolev deserved it, because he was causing such havoc" (our translation). No stenographic transcript or second source has been found, and no reaction or consequences are known. — Wikiquote