Stela Dimitrova Nikolova

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.

Communist Party and State Security

• Her father. Journalist Sonya Koltukliyeva asked Stela Nikolova in the corridors of parliament whether she knows Dimitar Denev Dimitrov and whether he is her father, explaining that the question relates to a document "which shows that her father was a State Security agent under the pseudonym Damyanov"; according to Koltukliyeva the man was recruited by State Security in 1983. Nikolova replied with a counter-question, "Why are you asking?", and according to PIK went into the chamber without answering. Koltukliyeva also put the question as a challenge to Yes, Bulgaria: "Are you all heirs of State Security in this party". PIK's text contains nothing linking Dimitrov to Nikolova beyond Koltukliyeva's claim; the kinship is not confirmed (our translation). — PIK, 16.07.2026

Russia

• The Russian centre. In spring 2025 Stela Nikolova alerted the executive that the Russian Cultural-Information Centre in Sofia holds paid events whose income goes untaxed. The tax agency (NAP) confirmed that the centre carries on taxable business activity without having filed tax returns or paid taxes, and issued an audit order for 2021–2025. According to Sega, as of 02.08.2026 the audit had not started; the new NAP director Boris Mihaylov explains that the order could not be served. Foreign minister Velislava Petrova wrote in reply to Nikolova that the order was forwarded to the Russian embassy by note verbale of 09.07.2026 and no signed copy of the receipt has come back. — Sega, 02.08.2026
• The consulate. In March 2025, answering a parliamentary question from Stela Nikolova, foreign minister Georg Georgiev stated that the activity of the Russian Consulate General in Varna is "temporarily suspended", not definitively ended; restoring it requires Bulgarian consent, and none has so far been requested (our translation). — Mediapool, 12.03.2025

Corruption and scandals

• Karantinata. In October 2024 the European Public Prosecutor's Office charged former Varna mayor Ivan Portnih, former regional governor Stoyan Pasev and two officials of the Maritime Administration with drawing up documents with false content and submitting false information in order to obtain EUR 3.4 million of EU funds for a fishing-port project at Karantinata. A signal was filed by the Anti-Corruption Fund, and also by Nikolova: "I filed a signal with the European Public Prosecutor's Office, gave testimony as a whistleblower... At last, after four years, we have a charge" (our translation). — Club Z, 11.10.2024
• The preference votes. Varna GERB MP Slavena Tocheva put a question to caretaker interior minister Ivan Demerdzhiev in which she voiced doubts about Nikolova's preference vote (3,862 preferences against more than 10,000 for Tocheva). Nikolova replied that claims "that my preferences were bought" are "absolute lies" (our translation). Tocheva is from a rival party; according to Club Z her question came against the background of an Interior Ministry check into how she herself gathered her more than 10,000 preferences. — Club Z, 27.07.2023
• Fake photos. Factcheck.bg established that a photo spread on social media showing Stela Nikolova and Tatyana Kristi with Oleg Nevzorov, owner of the KUB corporation, is manipulated: in the original video frame the person next to Nikolova is Anna Sokolenko, a Ukrainian citizen who reported discrimination in Varna. The image began spreading from profiles close to Vazrazhdane. Nikolova and Kristi published denials. — Actualno.com (citing Factcheck.bg), 24.06.2026