Ilian Vassilev () (born July 7, 1956) is a Bulgarian
diplomat
A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...
, writer, and political
blogger
A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...
. He was President of the Bulgarian Foreign Investment Agency from 1997 to 2000, the
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...
of the
Republic of Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
to the
Russian Federation
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
from 2000 to 2006,
following which he became Chairman of
Deloitte
Deloitte is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees, and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along wi ...
in Bulgaria. At present he is Managing Partner of his own consulting company Innovative Energy Solutions. He is Chairman of the Reform Union Club (RUC) and Honorary Chair of the Bulgarian Economic Forum since its Foundation in 1997. Ilian Vassilev also coordinates the Sofia Business School, a joint undertaking of the RUC and the New Bulgarian University. He has served as advisor on
energy
Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...
related matters to succeeding Bulgarian governments and appears as a regular
energy security
Energy security is the association between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption (as opposed to household energy insecurity). Access to cheaper energy has become essential to the functioning of modern ...
commentator for western news outlets, including the Financial Times, Reuters, and others.
Energy security activism
Since leaving Deloitte in 2011 to found his own
management consulting
Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultant ...
company, Innovative Energy Solutions, Vassilev has been an outspoken
energy security
Energy security is the association between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption (as opposed to household energy insecurity). Access to cheaper energy has become essential to the functioning of modern ...
activist, supporting the development of
shale gas
Shale gas is an unconventional natural gas that is found trapped within shale formations. Since the 1990s, a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has made large volumes of shale gas more economical to produce, and ...
fields in Bulgaria, construction of the
Nabucco pipeline
The Nabucco pipeline (also referred as Turkey–Austria gas pipeline) was a failed natural gas pipeline project from Erzurum, Turkey, to Baumgarten an der March, Austria to diversify natural gas suppliers and delivery routes for Europe. The p ...
project, and commentator regarding the viability of the Belene NPP, and the
South Stream
South Stream (; ; ; ; ; ) is a canceled pipeline project to transport natural gas of the Russian Federation through the Black Sea to Bulgaria and through Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia further to Austria. It was never finished.
The project was f ...
project.
Political and social activism
Vassilev has built a reputation as a critic of corruption. He has been vocal about the fact that Bulgaria's Prosecution acts like a "baseball bat" and attacks those who criticize the status quo.
He expressed worries in 2017 that Bulgaria's General Prosecutor
Sotir Tsatsarov continuously exceeds his powers under Bulgaria's Constitution and acts like a hub spreading Russian influence in Europe.
Vassilev has also raised concern about Bulgaria's practices of corporate-raiding and political repressions. In a commentary on his popular blog, he famously said: "You are an owner until
Borisov and
Peevski decide so."
Recently, he underscored that the unexpected dismissal of an established journalist was an example of the authoritarian tendencies in Bulgaria.
Bibliography
*
* Kjell Engelbrekt and Ilian Vassilev, European Energy Policy Meets Russian Bilateralism: The Case of South Eastern Europe in Russia and Europe Building Bridges, Digging Trenches, Routledge, 2010
See also
*
Embassy of Bulgaria in Moscow
References
External links
;Official sites
Ilian Vassilev's English BlogIlian Vassilev's Business BlogIlian Vassilev's Bulgarian BlogIlian Vassilev's TwitterInnovative Energy Solutions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vassilev, Ilian
1956 births
Living people
Bulgarian male writers
Bulgarian bloggers
Bulgarian businesspeople
University of National and World Economy alumni
Ambassadors of Bulgaria to Russia