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Daniela Gorcheva is the publisher and editor of "Dialogue" - a magazine for politics, culture and history, which has been issued in Bulgarian for 10 years in the Netherlands and has subscribers worldwide. The magazine is intended as a bridge between cultures and carries out its mission successfully. The largest Dutch Library - Amsterdam Public Library is also among its subscribers. The 

magazine is also kept in the archive of The St. St. Cyril and Methodius National Library in Sofia. Daniela lives in the Netherlands. She has a degree in Bulgarian philology and history from Sofia University and contributes to numerous publications in Bulgaria, the Netherlands and other countries. She is the scriptwriter of the documentary "Göç – Stepping Across the Border" directed by Irina Nedeva and Andrei Getov, in which Luben Byrzakov’s camera captures the pain caused by the so-called "Revival Process" to Bulgarian Turks who were driven away by the communist regime and their legal opposition to it. The film can be seen on You tube. In 2012, Daniela Gorcheva won for Bulgaria the prestigious EU Journalist Award “Together against discrimination!”

Maria S. Topalova talked to Daniela Gorcheva

The XXII Olympic Winter Games have already started. What do you think about the choice of Russia as the host for this event?

The decision of the International Olympic Committee for the consecutive Winter Olympics to be held in a totalitarian state (since Vladimir Putin has turned Russia into a totalitarian state again) is improper and outrageous. It is both politically reprehensible and morally indefensible.

The more outrageous fact is that Salzburg’s (Austria) absolutely appropriate application was rejected - there would have been no need to waste money on megalomaniacal and ruining the nature and life of local people construction works because everything was ready for Olympic Winter games there.

Indeed, Salzburg's application was rejected in favour of a summer resort like Sochi...

Yes, this is absolutely absurd - to held winter Olympics at the only place in Russia with subtropical climate, where it does not snow even in the winter!

How do members of the International Olympic Committee explain their decision?

They do not explain it at all. They mumble when they are pressed by western journalists and say that it has been a mistake. They have been "fascinated" by Vladimir Putin and his presentation. And why would they be so fascinated? Because of promises of megalomaniac constructions against the background of the already built necessary equipment in Salzburg? However, behind the festive facade of the Olympic Games in Sochi, the huge corruption and monstrous thefts which are yet to be paid by the ill-fated Russian taxpayers, are more clearly seen.

Why “yet”? Was not the money available at the time?

No, the money was borrowed. The money, which amounts to more than 50 billion dollars and which was spent on the underbuilt Olympic villages, was paid not by entrepreneurs and their companies, but borrowed from banks with state guarantees.

And when these entrepreneurs, who (what a coincidence!) seem to be oligarchs from the circle of the Russian president, refuse or simply are not able to repay the huge loans, a reasonable question will arise: who will pay? And the answer is clear - the Russians. And on top of everything, construction workers who toiled night and day at the sites have not received their money yet.

Indeed, Sochi 2014 became the most expensive Olympic Games so far...

But that’s not all. In an old totalitarian manner, Russia created an extraordinary law in order to build the Olympic villages, according to which land has been "nationalized", i.e. taken from owners - houses and homes of local people have been pulled down and their families thrown into the street. Finally, robbed people should be grateful if they were provided with a room per family in a building which is completely unsuitable for housing. Now there are people who are forced to cook their food in common areas, put up with the lack of water and basic amenities and use outdoor toilets.

Just for prestige?

I'm not sure whether this is the main goal. However, Sochi 2014 is a complete fiasco, with the unfinished hotels and streets, with the double lavatories and with all sorts of blunders and stupidity, which obviously will accompany the games all the time. But the purpose of the Russian oligarchy seems to have been "nationalization", i.e. to seize the property of people in one of the most expensive Russian resorts.

When the “circus” with the Olympic Games ends, the hotels will be sold and no compensation will be given to aggrieved owners of destroyed houses, of course. They will just put the money in their own pockets. And they do not care that this happens at the cost of an environmental catastrophe and ruined human lives.

All that remains somewhat outside the focus of media attention...

Yes, and not only that. Many other outrageous things remain outside media attention. Violations of human rights in Russia are hardly mentioned. However, it is not commented that it is practically impossible to protest in any occasion and manner in today's Russia. Even if you open an umbrella on the street, you risk being dragged into a van, get arrested and beaten.

Because you have opened an umbrella?

That’s right. Recently, a group of people participated in a flash mob with open umbrellas and were brutally arrested, tossed and dragged down the street. You can imagine the severity of violence, since the police broke the legs of an elderly Frenchwoman during this action.

And what did the action support?

It supported a Russian TV channel - "Rain", which was forced to apologize, because journalists asked the completely reasonable question whether a million and a half residents of Leningrad needed to die during the siege of the city during the war?

Numerous protest letters from outraged groups followed this event... How can the victory be "belittled" in this way? But what's so scary about asking questions and what's wrong with polemics?

People have the right to know why children, women and old men were not evacuated from Leningrad, since there was a week before the siege tightened from all sides. Stalin needed only 24 hours in order to deport the entire Chechen people, but he could not evacuate people from the besieged city.

Moreover, pensions of people who could not stay in the besieged city for at least 120 days were stopped. But after 120 days, they were dead. However, asking questions not only about the present but even about the past, proved dangerous in Russia and now the daring TV channel will be closed. And the people who came out to support TV "Rain" with a flash mob, opening umbrellas were brutally arrested. Because they opened umbrellas on the street!

Therefore, those politicians and royals who dared to go to the opening of the Winter Olympics in Sochi despite criticism in their country have disgraced themselves. And nothing can wash away their shame.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Oresharski also went to the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

Yes, and President Plevneliev is thinking of attending the closing ceremony.

There is yet another especially shocking thing - the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, who attended the ceremony, which seemed to have taken us back to the Soviet Union, did not say anything at all in protest of the fact that the Cyrillic alphabet was promoted at the opening... as a Russian achievement.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who was criticized in his country because he went to Sochi, was at least forced to “read the Riot Act” to Russian President Putin on human rights and it was broadcast on television. But it was also broadcast how the Russian dictator, quite inexplicably red, replied cynically that it was better for "both sides" to forget "aggression" and enjoy the sport.

There is no excuse and there cannot be any excuse for politicians who ignored moral principles and went to Sochi. The significant Dutch delegation consisting of a King, a Queen, a Prime Minister and a Minister of Sport was a great disappointment. Especially against the background of the leaders of Germany, France, Belgium, the UK and the USA, who announced that they will not go to Sochi. The President of Lithuania directly said that she was not going to Sochi for political reasons.

The position of Sweden was particularly praiseworthy. Sports Minister Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth directly said: "It is even worse than I thought. Just awful. Of course I will not go to Sochi. The Games are an opportunity for Putin and his regime to show off. I do not want to participate in this."

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