Russia was supposed to play a key role in the building of both projects. The purpose of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline was to avoid congesting the Turkish Straits by allowing Russian tankers to dock at the Bulgarian port of Burgas and pipe oil to the Greek port of Alexandroupolis. Cash-strapped Greece was hoping that the project would give it some much-needed capital.

Merkel's favorite Balkan leader disappoints Bulgarians

Today @ 09:21 CET

He is German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Bulgarian darling. She and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso hope he will justify the controversial admission of his country to the EU. He is supposed to rid it of crime and corruption, modernise its economy and institutions and raise living standards.

Instead, Bulgaria's Prime Minister is increasingly accused of establishing what many see as close to a police state. Some critics already describe 51-year-old Boiko Borisov, a former police general with a penchant for uniforms and macho manners, as reminiscent of a banana republic ruler - brutal and paternalistic to his own people and servile to his powerful foreign mentors. The country's poor economic performance and sometimes bizarre manoeuvring on the international stage does not help.

"Bulgarian democracy is not of a good quality yet. It is not a stable democracy," history professor Dragomir Draganov said. "The EU realised it made a very serious mistake by letting us in on January 1 2007. Now it is just in the interest of EU bureaucrats and their enormous salaries to dupe European taxpayers that Bulgaria is on the right track and they are doing their job well."

Rule of law or a police state?

Mr Borisov's government has launched a massive campaign of arrests, widely publicised in the media. Interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov is an almost daily guest in morning TV shows where he announces the latest "special police operation" with a thrilling code-name. However, in many cases, targets prove to be petty criminals – highway pimps or village usurers, respected human rights lawyer Mihail Ekimdzhiev says.

Mr Draganov agreed: "Allegations of Bulgaria turning into a police state are due to the excessive showing-off in the Interior Ministry operations."

The government has repeatedly sent heavily armed police in anti-terrorist gear to arrest unarmed suspects who did not hide or resist. Police video footage from the ugly scenes is handed to the media on a regular basis and they readily publish it.

And so, at 6:00 am local time on 31 March, police broke into the house of Borislav Gutsanov, an opposition politician, who chairs the municipal council in the Black Sea port of Varna, pointing their submachine guns at him and his frightened wife and children.

Mr Gutsanov, who is suspected of corruption, said he would have voluntarily reported to police had he been summoned under the normal legal procedure. He is already suing Bulgaria in the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg.

In a similar raid, hooded police arrested former defence minister Nikolai Tsonev, while he was in hospital for a health-check. A police video circulated to the media showed officers holding their guns against his head as a prosecutor commanded: "As you are an absolute criminal, down on your knees!"

Mr Tsonev is accused of trying to bribe a magistrate to scrap an investigation against him about a controversial public procurement deal. A judge told a preliminary court hearing that police evidence against Mr Tsonev was not strong enough to prove the charges.

Mr Ekimdzhiev says police propaganda often illegally labels suspects as "criminals" before they have been even questioned or allowed to have a lawyer.

"The only justification for these police methods is the propaganda that the interior ministry is doing at the expense of our rights," he said. "This infringes both the constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights on at least two counts - the presumption of innocence and the ban to film people without their prior consent."

Polls show that the wave of arrests appeals to the general public, which has lost patience with impunity under previous governments.

"The need for justice very quickly evolves into a thirst for revenge and clampdown," Mr Ekimdzhiev said. "It is very dangerous to pump up such a kind of pressure in the society."

"The executive in Bulgaria clearly doesn't respect human rights," Mr Draganov added. "On the other hand, most citizens are so ignorant of their rights that they are inclined to accept the low quality of their democracy."

Mr Draganov, a specialist in 20th century fascist regimes in Spain and Italy, believes only EU membership stands between Bulgaria and straightforward dictatorship. The country's traditional parties have largely lost voters' trust for failing to tackle chronic ills such as poverty and lawlessness. Mr Borisov's main ally keeping his minority government in power is the chauvinistic, xenophobic and anti-Semitic Ataka party.

The demonstration of police force has failed to deliver in terms of high profile convictions. Indictments against four ministers from the previous government are dragging on, while two suspected underworld bosses, the dreaded Krasimir and Nikolai Marinovi brothers, were acquitted last Monday (14 June) for lack of evidence in a four year-long trial on charges of plotting to kill three businessmen, among them former foreign minister Lyuben Gotsev.

"There are no verdicts because police and prosecutors do their jobs poorly," Mr Ekimdzhiev said.

Do you feel intimidated?

One can often hear such comments in private conversations but rarely read them in the media. US think tank Freedom House has listed Bulgaria along with Italy and Slovakia as the only EU countries with "partially free" media.

Criticism of the government is largely absent in mainstream media and has migrated to a couple of entertainment TV shows, where political satire is flourishing. Mr Borisov said in a TV interview he could easily "shut them down" but did not do so because of possible complications with the EU.

In response to criticism by President Georgi Parvanov about exerting pressure on media, Mr Borisov recently sent a list of questions to all main chief editors asking them it they feel intimidated by him. They promptly replied by a consensual and resounding "no."

"This is a provocation against media and abuse of the very idea of press freedom," said Velislava Dareva, a popular left-leaning columnist. "The government poised as a racketeer with a baseball bat in his hands and the media allowed themselves to be humiliated. Imagine a wolf asking a herd of lambs: 'Did I threaten to eat you? And they answering: N-o-o-o-o, by no means!'"

While there is no overt government censorship, many journalists complain of indirect pressure through economic means.The most frequently quoted example is the so-called New Bulgarian Media Group, which includes four national top-selling tabloids, a weekly, a local daily and a TV station. They have turned around overnight from scathing criticism of Mr Borisov to praising him after he won elections in July last year. The papers are sold at obviously subsidised prices and put competitors under severe pressure as readership is shrinking because of the economic crisis. The national competition watchdog has remained silent.

"Bulgarian media are deluding themselves that they are 'the fourth power.' They are not. They are either in the servants' room of power or among its ladies of pleasure," Ms Dareva said. "Publishing is often not the main business of newspaper owners. They use media to further their main interests – economic, financial, political."

"Oligarchy includes politicians, judiciary, crime and media with common interests. Media owners are part of this combination – in many cases the latter are auxiliary personnel," she added. "I didn't see such awful self-censorship even under Communism. It's due to fear and dependence."

Bulgaria's journalists' unions are fractured and weak. The electronic media watchdog council is partly elected by parliament and partly appointed by the president and reflects the current balance of power.

Pollsters say that Bulgaria currently offers Europe and the US no better alternative to support than Mr Borisov. Despite having the lowest living standards in the EU and a worsening economic situation, 42 percent of Bulgarians believe his rule is successful. Some 44 percent consider it a failure, according to a recent survey by the Sova Harris agency.

A large part of Mr Borisov's opponents do not vote, agency chief Vasil Tonchev explains. "There is no political project showing better prospects for the time being," he said.

Български гражданин налага нови форми на комуникация в германски съд