Word: lukanov
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Unlike most other East Europeans, Bulgarians seem genuinely friendly toward the Russian people, with whom they have ethnic, linguistic and religious affinities. To such pragmatic young Bulgarian bureaucrats as Petar Mladenov, 36, the youngest Foreign Minister in Europe, and Andrei Lukanov, 34, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, this friendliness extends even to the Soviet government. According to Lukanov, Bulgaria's transformation from an agricultural backwater into an industrial and trading power in the Balkans is largely owing to Soviet aid. "Without the U.S.S.R.," he said, "it would have been impossible for us to develop our exports...
Bulgarians take pride in their 210,000 passenger cars-twenty times as many as in 1960-even though most of them are owned by bureaucrats. Lukanov told Talbott that "we are already producing enough food for two Bulgarias"; yet vegetables and meat are often scarce and expensive because of the enforced exports to the Soviet bloc. The regime apparently plans to reduce some of these inequities. It was announced that 412 million leva ($382,500,000) of this year's 7.11 billion leva ($6.6 billion) national budget would be used to increase wages and workers' benefits...