Vladislav Pantchev Panev

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

• His father. Bivol writes that fellow party members from the Green Movement's internal opposition accuse Panev, saying that "his father Pancho Panev has been disclosed as recruited in 1980 by the State Security as a 'safe-house keeper' under the pseudonym 'Roza'" (our translation). According to Bivol, its check with the Dossier Commission (COMDOS) shows that "data on such a person do indeed exist in the files" (our translation). The article contains no reply from Panev on this. — Bivol, 22.08.2023

Russia

• Russia. In June 2022, as deputy chair of the Democratic Bulgaria group, he told BNR that the expulsion of 70 Russian diplomatic staff had not been coordinated with DB but that he welcomed it: "because obviously Mrs Mitrofanova [the Russian ambassador] is interfering quite seriously in Bulgarian politics" (our translation). — News.bg, 28.06.2022
• Lukoil. In November 2025, as a former MP, he told BNR, on the special manager of the Burgas refinery: "We must be sure there will be no companies at the entrance and exit of Lukoil that drain the company like the groups of the 1990s" (our translation). — Mediapool, 17.11.2025

Corruption and scandals

• Defamation. On 5 May 2026 the Sofia Court of Appeal upheld the Sofia City Court ruling ordering PIK News to pay Panev BGN 25,000 in compensation for defamation. According to Panev, in April 2021 PIK and other sites published that he had molested a 17-year-old boy in Kazichene; he says the police quickly checked and found nothing in it. The ruling is appealable. — Mediapool, 23.05.2026
• The selfie. In December 2021, as an MP of Democratic Bulgaria, he posted a selfie with Delyan Peevski taken in parliament on Facebook and deleted it shortly afterwards because of the negative reactions. He then apologised and wrote: "Of course Peevski is an emanation of the oligarchic model in Bulgaria" (our translation). He says the photo was taken as a joke in the lobby and that he does not know Peevski and has not spoken to him; according to Mediapool, however, as early as the previous week Panev had talked to DPS representatives "to arrange for him to take a selfie with Delyan Peevski" (our translation). — Mediapool, 09.12.2021
• Kovachki. The court dismissed businessman Hristo Kovachki's defamation suit against Panev over a series of his 2019 and 2020 publications in Dnevnik and Capital alleging that Kovachki's companies import and burn waste. The court held that the publications were not aimed against Kovachki but at a public debate on pollution. The report is based on Panev's own Facebook announcement. — RFE/RL, 31.01.2022
• Declaration. According to Trud, in his initial declaration to KPKONPI as a newly elected Sofia municipal councillor, Green Movement co-chair Panev declared an apartment in Tilburg (BGN 356,935), four apartments in Sofia and "shares and stakes worth BGN 2,882,792" (our translation). No violation is alleged. — Trud, 07.03.2020
• Party report. Bivol, which published an internal report of 10 August 2023 by the Green Movement's inquiry commission amid a dispute between the party's internal opposition and its leadership, writes that "there is also an accusation that Vladislav Panev used for personal PR an agency that serves First Investment Bank" (our translation). According to an anonymous source of the outlet in the party, Panev "brought" the party's PR person into it (our translation). Speaking to Bivol, Panev denied that any appointments had been made in the party without following procedure. — Bivol, 22.08.2023