Petar Tanev

Intern

Petar Tanev was born in Bulgaria and grew up in Russia, holding dual Bulgarian and Russian nationalities. He graduated in 2022 from the RUDN-university in Moscow, from which he holds a BA in International Relations. In parallel to his studies, Petar has undertaken an internship at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria. During his life in Russia, his main mission was to inform younger generations about the EU political processes and its primary values & ideas. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, he co-founded the “For Free Russia” Association in Bulgaria and started an informational campaign about the political realities in Russia in order to prevent Kremlin propaganda from occurring in Bulgarian & EU society, also providing humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians. Recently, he worked as a Trainee Parliamentary Assistant in the European Parliament office of the Head of the Bulgarian delegation in EPP, MEP Andrey Kovatchev. During his work, his main responsibilities were to provide expertise for the reports, elaborating amendments and initiatives on all topics related to the ongoing war in Ukraine and malicious Kremlin influence in the political processes of the EU and Western Balkans. In addition to his work at WMCES, Petar represents Russian democratic forces for relations with EU institutions.

His main areas of research interest include EU common foreign & policy towards countries of the Balkan region, Russia, Ukraine & Belarus; the role of EU countries in Transatlantic defence cooperation (NATO); and foreign interference in all democratic processes of the EU.

In addition to his native Bulgarian and Russian, Petar is fluent in English and has good knowledge of the Serbian and Croatian languages.