Word: bulgaria
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...avoid immediate problems with Moscow because of his country's solid economic performance. "From the Soviets' point of view, East Germany is efficient, disciplined and relatively prosperous," says one Western analyst in Munich. "That's a position the Soviet Union can only envy." By contrast, Gorbachev has already chastised Bulgaria and its troubled economy. After visiting Sofia in late 1985, the Soviet leader said there were "sharp edges" to his meeting with Bulgarian Leader Todor Zhivkov. Zhivkov has since pressed, with minimal success, for economic reforms like the decentralization of economic power to factory managers...
Officials in several East European countries have also begun confronting narcotics use -- and encountering similar problems. As recently as 1980, Poland was the only East-bloc nation in which drug abuse was openly discussed. Today only Bulgaria, Rumania and East Germany remain silent on the issue. In Hungary, experts estimate that between 30,000 and 50,000 people abuse drugs. In Poland, one out of every ten youths is believed to use narcotics at least occasionally. Says Warsaw Sociologist Antoni Bielewicz: "The numbers are staggering, and there is no end in sight...
...warn that the Sandinistas may escalate the air war by introducing Soviet-built MiG jet fighters to the region, a circumstance that could provoke direct U.S. military action. U.S. intelligence reports show that about two dozen Nicaraguan pilots are currently receiving flight training in the Soviet Union and Bulgaria...
Bulgarian Leader Todor Zhivkov was the next to get the party faithful together. Zhivkov, 74, has been in power for 32 years and is the doyen of East European party bosses. He had incurred Gorbachev's displeasure earlier because of Bulgaria's faltering economy, but in his keynote speech he paid glowing tribute to the Soviet leader. Zhivkov stridently called for "profound change" in the economic system, such as linking wages to performance and conducting a "scientific and technological revolution." But the veteran Bulgarian leader offered little of substance that would suggest he had plans for bureaucratic reforms along...
...with the exception of Poland, could come soon and suddenly. In the meantime, the Soviet chief is pressuring local parties to rejuvenate the middle ranks and trying to spot future leaders. Most of the aging party chiefs will almost certainly be replaced by technocrats in the Gorbachev mold. In Bulgaria, for example, Mining Engineer Chudomir Alexandrov, 49, has just been promoted to the powerful post of central committee secretary, and looms as a potential successor to Zhivkov. In Czechoslovakia a quiet changing of the guard is under way. Says a highly placed official in his 40s: "The older ones...