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Rumen Radev, whose party took the lead in Bulgaria’s elections tonight, has long been linked to the Kremlin in a “controversial manner”. Leonid Reshetnikov is a retired Lieutenant General of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) who headed the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISI) from 2009 to 2017. RISI, formally part of the SVR until 2009 and thereafter under the presidential administration, served as a key instrument of Russian soft power and influence operations across Eastern Europe. After leaving RISI in 2017, Reshetnikov became chairman of the supervisory board of Tsargrad TV, a neo-imperial Russian news channel financed by Kremlin-linked oligarch Konstantin Malofeev. The core of the Radev–Reshetnikov link traces to the 2016 Bulgarian presidential election. According to a U.S. State Department report on Russian disinformation, Reshetnikov directly interfered in that election. His institute commissioned a sociological study conducted between July 1–15, 2016, specifically designed to identify the profile of an ideal pro-Russian BSP presidential candidate - one who would increase support for Russia while eroding support for the US, EU, and NATO. The results of that survey, analysts noted, mapped almost precisely onto Rumen Radev's public profile. Crucially, just two weeks after the study concluded, General Radev resigned as Air Force commander on August 1, 2016 - and within days, BSP and ABV were already promoting him as their presidential candidate. After Radev won the 2016 presidential election, Reshetnikov himself publicly acknowledged that he had discussed Radev's candidacy with BSP leader Kornelia Ninova, effectively confirming Russian intelligence involvement in shaping the nomination. This admission was cited directly in Bulgarian and international media. The U.S. State Department subsequently included the 2016 Bulgarian presidential election in its broader report on the Kremlin's global propaganda and disinformation ecosystem. The Reshetnikov connection deepened in September 2019, when Bulgarian Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov charged Nikolai Malinov - head of the pro-Russian Russophile National Movement - with espionage for Russia, and simultaneously announced that Reshetnikov was banned from entering Bulgaria for 10 years on national security grounds. Investigations revealed that Malinov had controlled accounts receiving funds from RISI and the Double-Headed Eagle Society - organizations linked directly to Reshetnikov and Malofeev. At the time, President Radev responded cautiously, demanding "incontrovertible evidence" and suggesting the prosecution might be a politically motivated domestic maneuver — a reaction that critics interpreted as shielding the network. On the eve of today's election, the Washington Post published an analysis describing Bulgaria as the "Kremlin's next best bet" following Viktor Orbán's defeat in Hungary - framing a potential Radev government as Moscow's most significant remaining lever of influence inside the EU and NATO. Analysts and former diplomats interviewed expressed concern that Russian influence operations, with Reshetnikov's 2016 template as the blueprint, had now produced a political vehicle - Progressive Bulgaria - capable of reaching government.