IN: Nikolai Tsonev, head of the Defence Ministry Social Activities Agency, is the new Defence Minister, appointed from the quota of the National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP). Tsonev comes from a business background and currently owns shares in a number of companies in the field of paper and bread production, insurance and sports activities. He entered politics and the ministry in 1999 as head of its supply management directorate. In 2001, during the NMSP administration, he was an adviser to the then defence minister Nikolai Svinarov, who later left the NMSP when a splinter group was formed in Parliament. Under communism, Tsonev did three years’ military training in Kiev.

OUT: By April 23, NMSP had given no reason why Vesselin Bliznakov was replaced as defence minister. Media reports theorised that it was because Bliznakov was part of the group around former defence minister Nikolai Svinarov who earlier quit the NMSP. Other theories involved problems in the implementation of military reform and offset deals. Bliznakov started his career as an army doctor and later moved to radioactive protection. He entered politics in 2001 as an MP for the NMSP. In 2005, he was again elected to Parliament and was appointed as defence minister.