How much the state protection of Delyan Peevski cost the taxpayers

For years, DPS leader "Delyan Peevski" moved around with state protection and state vehicles – not due to a lack of personal funds, as his property declarations show, but by virtue of a decision by a special interdepartmental commission. Representatives of the Interior Ministry, heads of services, and other high-ranking officials participate in it, and its decisions are secret. If the commission deems that there is a threat to the life of a public figure, protection and vehicles are immediately assigned at the taxpayers' expense. That is exactly how Peevski and the leader of GERB, former Prime Minister "Boyko Borisov", were protected for years.

Only five days after the formation of the "Radev" cabinet, however, both were left without NSO protection. The reason is a decision by the interdepartmental commission that Peevski and Borisov are no longer under threat. What the new assessment is based on is not clear – just as it was not clear what the motives for the old one were. The only obvious change is the personnel composition of the commission, in which the new government has placed its own people.

How much Peevski's protection costs
For the first time, the approximate amount that the protection of the Bulgarian politician "Delyan Peevski", sanctioned for corruption by the USA and Great Britain, has cost monthly comes to light. Until now, such information was not provided – not because it should be a secret, but because the institutions that possess it refused to disclose it.

For the first ten months of 2025, the "National Protection Service" spent at least BGN 182,651.33 (about EUR 91,500) on the salaries of the guards engaged in protecting Peevski. Separately, the NSO spent BGN 44,029.24 (about EUR 22,100) on the vehicles used by him and his motorcade during the same period.

A total of 9,996 km were covered, of which 8,111 km were with NSO vehicles and 1,885 km with a DPS vehicle provided for free use. These data show that Peevski's state protection cost over BGN 22,000 (about EUR 11,000) per month, or approximately BGN 270,000 (EUR 135,500) per year.

How one of the most closely guarded secrets fell
One of the best-kept secrets in the country was revealed following a decision by the "Administrative Court in Dobrich" in a case filed by a local citizen under the Access to Public Information Act. With the help of lawyer "Alexander Kashumov" from the "Access to Information Programme", the Dobrich resident "Stoycho Stoychev" managed to get the NSO to disclose what the travel expenses for Peevski were using the service's vehicles during the specified period, how many kilometers were traveled, and what the expenses were for security activities for the DPS leader contracted to external providers, if any.

The NSO initially refused to provide the requested information, claiming that it was part of the service's operational activities and constituted an element of national security protection. The service went so far as to state that it could not even confirm whether Peevski had state protection.

However, administrative judge "Lyubomir Genov" pointed out in his ruling that such information cannot in any way be classified as secret because it does not reveal anything about the NSO's working methods. Moreover, it is publicly known that Peevski has NSO protection, which further renders the claim of secrecy meaningless.

Political pressure to remove the protection
For a long time, "Democratic Bulgaria" and "We Continue the Change" insisted on removing the state protection of Peevski and Boyko Borisov. They introduced a bill to strip the two politicians of state protection, but it was rejected by the previous parliament due to the position of "There Is Such a People".

The exact reason why Peevski was protected by the NSO for years remains a mystery, and there is no public information on the subject. The commission that makes decisions about protection works by rule in strict secrecy and gives no explanations. At a certain period, Peevski was also protected by the "Specialized Counter-Terrorism Unit" (SOBT) – the so-called "Berets". This duty was canceled by former caretaker Interior Minister "Emil Dechev" immediately after the "Gyurov" caretaker cabinet replaced that of "Rosen Zhelyazkov".

Signals of an assassination attempt and prosecutorial protection
As early as 2016, the then-Chief Secretary of the Interior Ministry "Georgi Kostov" announced that information had been received about a planned assassination attempt against the MP, for which reason NSO protection was assigned to him. Over the years, the prosecutor's office has also shown a readiness to "defend" Peevski.

In 2014, a case was opened due to suspicions that three people were planning his murder. Subsequently, it turned out that there was no evidence of such a conspiracy, but one of the defendants knew the banker "Tsvetan Vasilev", who at the same time entered into a sharp conflict with Peevski, and his bank "KTB" was declared bankrupt in the summer of the same year.

In 2019, the Specialized Prosecutor's Office opened a case against the Romanian citizen "Dorin Iordache" on suspicions that he was trying to blackmail Peevski and "Ahmed Dogan", who at that time were not yet in conflict with each other. Iordache spent eight months in custody in Bulgaria, and after pleading guilty, received a sentence of exactly eight months in prison – a term he had already served in pre-trial detention – and was released.

The revelations about the cost of Delyan Peevski's protection show not only the numbers behind a privileged status but also how difficult it is for citizens to gain access to information about how public funds are spent. The "Peevski and NSO" case calls into question the transparency of institutions and the logic by which it is decided who should be protected with taxpayers' money and for how long.