Dimitar Nikolov Nikolov

Public record

Compiled from publications and official records as of 18.10.2026. 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

• Higher education in Moscow. The mayor's official biography on the Burgas municipality website gives his education as "Higher education in economics – Economic University – Moscow" (our translation). According to a 24 Chasa profile (2015), he studied in Moscow at the end of the 1980s. The exact name of the institution, the years of study and who sent him there are not stated. — Burgas municipality, the mayor's biography, hiclub.bg (after 24 Chasa), 2015
• An award from Putin, 2014. In February 2014 Nikolov, then mayor and deputy chairman of GERB, received an award from the Russian president Vladimir Putin "for his great contribution to strengthening and developing Russian–Bulgarian relations" (our translation). The Reformist Bloc called on him to refuse it because of the events in Kyiv. Nikolov replied on Facebook that it was a certificate of thanks initiated by Russian citizens whom he had helped in Burgas: "Dear critics, gratitude is not returned" (our translation). — Dnevnik, 19.02.2014
• Lukoil Neftohim Burgas. On 30.04.2024 the mayor and the chairman of Lukoil's management board, Evgeni Manyakhin, signed a donation contract for 300,000 leva from the refinery to the municipality. Nikolov said: "Lukoil Neftohim Burgas has declared its support for the city for years" (our translation). The refinery is owned by Russia's Lukoil; after the sanctions against the company in 2025, parliament passed amendments under which a special manager of the state entered its management. — Utro Ruse (BTA), 30.04.2024, Blitz, 11.2025
• Russia's honorary consul Tonko Fotev. On the death of Tonko Fotev, for many years honorary consul of the Russian Federation in Burgas, the mayor expressed his condolences: "For years he was part of the public life of Burgas and carried out his mission as honorary consul of the Russian Federation in our city" (our translation). According to the biography published by Flagman, Fotev was an Interior Ministry officer: "from 1979 to 1983 he studied at the special faculty of the USSR Interior Ministry Academy in Moscow" (our translation), then served as deputy head of the Interior Ministry office in Sozopol and as head of the information and analysis section of the regional Interior Ministry directorate in Burgas. — Dunav Most (after the Burgas municipality press office), 10.2026, Flagman, Tonko Fotev's biography, 10.2026

Corruption and scandals

• The 2002 land sale at Koral beach. Mediapool describes the 2002 sale of 130 decares of municipal land near Koral beach in Tsarevo to Vitatur Invest AD, for 7 dollars per square metre. According to the former council chairman Dimo Ivanov, negotiations with the councillors were led by Dimitar Nikolov in Tsarevo and in his office at the factory in Burgas; he was a direct partner in Vitatur Invest through Europa 5 and gave guarantees that SDS would support the sale. The outlet adds that the mayor's office said he would not comment because he did not take direct part in running Vitatur. Bivol claims that the current Burgas mayor is a "concrete beneficiary" (our translation) of the deal, with profit from the resale of the land above 40 million euro, and writes that attempts to open a pre-trial proceeding met resistance at the District and Appellate Prosecutor's Offices in Burgas. The outlet adds that in 2011 the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor's Office set aside their rulings and returned the file for examination on the merits, and that the file under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code was taken over by the National Investigation Service (No. 212/2012) and the check was under way. Neither publication reports a charge against the mayor. — Mediapool, 10.06.2010, Bivol, 16.01.2013