All language subtitles for Shadows of Sofia 2019 1080p Blu-ray Remux AVC DTS-HD MA 2.0 - KRaLiMaRKo

Growing up in Texas,
I was taught to hate communism,

and mistrust
anything to do with Russia,

a shadowy empire operating
from behind an lron Curtain,

hellbent on destroying
the American way of life.

When communism fell, we were
all supposed to be relieved.

But the paranoia
was so ingrained,

it never truly faded.

Today, America has
the world on edge,

with almost 1,000 military bases in every corner of the planet.

But a new type
of Cold War has begun,

a war of social media spin
and fake news,

causing a climate
of political chaos,

making American citizens
turn against one another.

My idea was simple, find a
country undoubtedly manipulated

by Russia,
and search for answers,

in hopes that
it could shed light

on the current
crisis in the States.

Finally leaving
for Bulgaria tomorrow.

My biggest fear, you
wanna know my biggest fear is?

- Nothing's gonna happen.
- That nothing happens, that's my biggest fear.

My biggest fear is I go there,
and everybody's just like, what, life here is great,

- look at it, the weather's great, the food is great.
- Lt's not gonna be like that--

- Everything's great.
- Lt's not.

Here we go.

While flying overseas,
I logged onto the CIA's official YouTube channel,

and discovered a few fascinating videos,
produced right before the fall of communism.

In recognizing a communist,

physical appearance
counts for nothing.

If he openly declares
himself to be a communist,

we take his word for it.

If a person consistently reads,

and advocates
the views expressed

in a communist publication,
he may be a communist.

If a person
supports organizations

which reflect
communist teachings,

or organizations
labeled communist

by the Department of Justice,
she may be a communist.

If a person
defends the activities

of communist nations
while consistently attacking

the domestic and foreign
policy of the United States,

she may be a communist.

If a person does all these things over a period of time,
he must be a communist.

But there are other communists who don't show their real faces,
who work more silently.

Bulgaria,
a tiny country located

on the border of
Turkey and Greece,

known for having the world's
strongest bacteria,

used for making yogurt.

But regardless of
the exceptional bacteria,

Bulgaria had also gained
the unfortunate reputation

for having the worst corruption in the entire European Union,
and many believe this was due

to the Russian communists,
implanting a shadow government,

right before the
collapse of the Soviet Union

in the early '90s.

My mission, gain the
trust of several insiders,

and attempt to document how
Russia manipulates elections,

banking, media,
and the judicial system.

Day one with my new
team. There was Milla,

a native born, proud, patriotic Bulgarian,
helping with logistics.

Taylor, a young
filmmaker who had traveled

with me from Los Angeles,
and was the only other American

on the team,
my longtime friend, Paul Thomas,

from London, who had
been producing documentaries

for many years, Jordan,
a Bulgarian auditor by trade,

an activist
fighting to end corruption.

Evgeny, a seasoned
Bulgarian cameraman

with a magic eye,
and then there's Pavel,

the Bulgarian filmmaker,
and the joker of the bunch.

- Taylor's here. - That's me.
- Yeah, that's Taylor,

that's me, that's Milla, that's
the driver, and that's Taylor.

- Ah, you're in front seat.
- Yeah. - Yeah.

We needed an inside man,

someone not
corrupted by the mafia.

Jordan gave us
the contact information

of an independent
journalist named Assen Yordanov,

who ran the Bulgarian equivalent
of Wikileaks, called Bivol.

Okay.

Batteries, computer cables, remote controls.
- Yeah.

Even though we had not heard back from the journalist,
we hit the road,

in hopes of getting
our investigation started.

My first impression of driving through the country reminded me

of the 1984 Patrick
Swayze movie, Red Dawn,

in which small-town
America becomes occupied

by Russian forces
and Russian culture.

Here in the once occupied country,
you could easily see the seams

between the ancient
European architecture

and the crappy
cement and steel buildings,

left behind by the Soviet Union.

It was easy to tell that
this place must have looked

totally different before the
45 years of Russian occupation.

After driving for several hours,
we stopped for gas, where I learned

that Russia
supplies almost all the fuel

for the European Union
through Gazprom and Lukoil.

In a recent lnternet data dump,
known as the Paradise Papers, it was discovered

that back in 2011, Gazprom,

working through the
Russian state bank, VTB,

purchased a 5 % stake in Twitter,

and invested a billion
dollars in Facebook.

We were finally able to track down the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist,
Assen Yordanov,

who told me that he
lived in constant fear,

due to several of his
investigations creating damage

to the shadowy figures
pulling the strings

from behind a new
type of lron Curtain.

Ln the
Black Sea port of Burgas,

Assen showed us a huge
oil refinery owned by Russia.

That's crazy.

It's pretty crazy.

It's fucked up.

Assen drove us
down the Black Sea peninsula,

a highly valuable
parcel of land somehow owned

by Russia inside
the country of Bulgaria.

With the situation in Syria,
the bond between Russia and Turkey has become

a big concern in the West,
so when Assen told me

that the heads of the Bulgarian
Turkish party own the land

that Bulgaria illegally
gave to Russia, I made note

of these two shadowy figures,
named Dogan and Peevski.

Still in the coastal region,
Assen suggested we visit a different type

of Russian stronghold,
a tourist destination called Sunny Beach, said by many

to be the Cancun of
Russia and Eastern Europe.

People came for
the prostitutes, drugs,

and cheap
counterfeit Russian liquor.

It's rumored that the Sunny Beach policeman's main job is

to make sure tourists don't
die from the over-consumption

of discount drugs,
alcohol, or the sex.

Ken and I are going
fucking crazy, man, woo!

Why are
you here to party?

- Do it, do it.
- All right, all right.

It's what, bad alcohol?

Ugh, it's horrible.

No, man, all right, over here.

The next day, I awoke
to a kind of rubbing alcohol,

radiator fluid
taste in my mouth.

The booze may
have been counterfeit,

but my headache
was 100 % authentic.

During the Soviet occupation,
Sunny Beach was considered a five star exclusive resort,

a dream destination for only the wealthiest Russians and Bulgarians.

Bulgaria was
built for the carefree holiday.

But when communism fell,
the Russian backed mafia gobbled up all the real estate

on the coast,
using un-legislated privatization deals.

I wanted to learn
more about the significance

of the Russian mafia
controlling the coast,

so we met back up with Assen.

But tell me in English
why Americans should care

about what's going on here.

Starting to
feel a little like Chevy Chase,

making Eastern
European vacation,

I was having too much fun,
but it was time

to get the team,
including myself,

into a more disciplined mode.

Assen's comment about
Russia being a Trojan horse

inside the EU made me
realize I needed to learn more

about how Russia
gained its control

over this once sovereign nation.

And as with most stories
about 20th century history,

I discovered that
Hitler played a major factor.

But I needed to learn more about this
country's strange history of becoming one

of the Soviet satellite states
at the end of World War ll.

Much like Putin got his
start by being a KGB agent,

the Prime Minister of
Bulgaria, Boyko Borisov,

got his by being a bodyguard
to the communist dictator,

Todor Zhivkov, who
ruled for over three decades,

until the fall
of the Soviet empire.

But previous to
the Russian occupation

was a German aristocrat
named Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

The next day, we met up with
one of the largest landowners

in Bulgaria, now
symbolically titled the Tsar.

During
the peak of the war,

Simeon's father, King Boris lll,

was visited by Hitler,
who ordered him

to turn over the
60,000 Jews living in Bulgaria,

so far spared from
the Nazi death camps.

When the King refused,
Hitler had him poisoned.

As a result of his father's murder,
Simeon became the new King

of Bulgaria at the age
of six years old.

At the end of World War ll,
Russia didn't waste any time

in securing the geographically
significant country,

before it could fall
into the hands of the Allies.

What's a memory you
have of communism coming?

What was, what was,
what was the change?

Okay, so when you say all the people
around me were executed, who, who?

All around, you mean, like,
your cabinet, like, your political--

And why were you spared? I mean, then,
so you were spared because you were--

Some of the people I've talked to,
maybe you might consider this a conspiracy theory,

I'm not sure,
that have told me that

when Russia left,
like, through the KGB and,

or other organizations,
left a lot of kind of a mafia

in Bulgaria that went
onto infiltrate the government.

Of course I would.

After the interview,
Jordan was able to get a few minutes with a former king

to express the frustrations
he lives with every day.

Oh, poochie, look at this dog.

I came here in search
of the big red boogieman.

So when the Tsar openly admitted

that the KGB had
rightfully left people

and systems
behind after the collapse,

it made me
realize that it was time

for me to get
beyond my Western thinking.

Perhaps
understanding the virtues

of old communism
could help me grasp

the current political
climate back in the States.

So the team
suggested that I talk

to an old architect, made famous

for his massive
Soviet monuments.

Everywhere you look,
you see endless rows of old Russian style

tenement buildings,
they litter the landscape.

This place must have been gorgeous before they built all these places,

but all aesthetics aside,
there are people living in these buildings,

so tearing them down
would never be an option.

We stopped by
the Buzludzha monument

that Georgi Stoilov
had designed.

It was a like a giant
Russian flying saucer out

of an '80s style future,
now abandoned and sealed off.

Okay. Watch your head,
Milla, there are harsh sticks.

There are really
dangerous sticks above.

So this maybe has something to do with, like,
the space race a little bit, maybe?

It's notable
that the first human

in space was Russian
astronaut Yuri Gagarin.

Assen introduced me to an
investigator named Zahari Tomaf,

who was hired by
an American company

to track down stolen funds.

Zahari declined an
on-camera interview,

but told me that
Russia often uses the names

of fallen heroes for
companies and entities,

left in place for
back channel purposes.

In this case,
a Bulgarian tobacco company,

named Yurii Gagarin,
after the astronaut,

was reportedly linked
to the Russian VTB Bank.

Founded in 1963 by Russia,
Yuri Gagarin was just one

of an endless array
of corporate entities

and offshore accounts
left in place by the Soviets.

But in order for
all this to run smoothly,

the proper people
must stay in power.

Bulgaria is
struggling to supply water

and electricity to
its 6.8 million citizens,

with a voter
turnout expected at 50 %,

and allegations of fraud,
it looks unlikely

that elections will
solve Bulgaria's economic woes.

Seemingly unbeatable,
Prime Minister Boyko Borisov

is a controversial front man
for the former Soviet satellite

and current
NATO member, Bulgaria.

Foremost, I want to
thank the Prime Minister

for the strong
partnership in NATO.

Assen suggested that we go to a small town called Stara Zagora,

where Boyko's government was actively
bulldozing the homes of the poor and starving

Roma people, who ironically voted for him,
for as little as a sandwich.

We met with the young progressive mayor,
Zhivko Todorov.

I mean, are people
using the Roma people as a way

to, like, stack votes
on a certain party?

Growing up in America,
the word gypsy spark images

of mysticism,
nomadic fortunetellers.

♪ Gypsies, tramps, and thieves ♪

♪ We'd hear it from the people
of the town, they call us ♪

Across Eastern Europe,
there are over 10 million Roma people who,

during communism,
were forced to plant roots.

Ironically,
communism was the best thing

to ever happen to
most of these nomads,

because it gave them food,
shelter, and jobs.

But when communism fell in 1989,

most of these once nomadic
people found themselves stuck

in a no-win situation.

On the outskirts of Stara Zagora

was a Roma village
called Lozenets.

We met up with
a Roma man named Toshko,

who appeared to be the
spokesman for the village.

Manipulating the poor is something that happens in all countries,

but these Roma people were
like refugees of the Cold War.

So in hopes of
helping our investigation,

I wanted to dig deeper.

Some of the, you know,
the gypsies you talk to,

they claim that they do,
that they do pay

for their water, they
do pay for their electricity,

that they do have the
right to have that land there.

Ls that all, is that all just talk?
Ls none of that's real, or is it--

Right, right, I get it.
So they'll all vote for them.

And then
once he gets in office,

he's, like, he's out of there.

Toshko's daughter, Toni,
was only 12 years old, but for Roma people,

getting married and having
babies usually starts at age 14.

As a journalist,
I know you're not supposed to get personally involved,

but when the Roma people invited us to dinner,
how could we refuse?

Did you learn any English today?
Did she learn English? Does she have a phrase?

Toni,
what color is this?

The majority of
young Roma girls are sold

by their parents at
the local brides mart,

where there's a very good
chance they would end up victims

of the massive human trafficking networks
orchestrated by the Russian mafia.

Maybe if we could keep one child from becoming a sex slave,
it would bring us good luck

for our investigation.

The next day,
we hired a private tutor,

but when she discovered that Toni was Roma,
she suddenly declined.

What do you mean? You are teacher of Toni,
and you just want to speak

about how the lessons
are going on and such things.

She said, "No, no, no,
I don't want to be part of it."

I soon learned that the racism here was harshly focused on the Roma,

who ironically
suffered the worst

from the collapse of communism.

This is what we call an impromptu English lesson in Stara Zagora.

This animal
makes a sound.

What animal is this?

We had to keep
moving with our investigation,

but before we left,
we decided to help Toni

with a few items that
could help her in school.

- Wow.
- Wow, that's so cute.

- Film it, film it.
- Where's Paul? We should have the other camera going.

I mean, this story, Toni's
such a magical little creature,

she's so sweet, and so smart,

and she represents everything
good, and the fact that

that tutor wouldn't
teach her is just, like, gross,

- it speaks to the mental just conflict in this area.
- Yeah.

- It's a really great story.
- Lt's crazy racism.

So glad to return to our quiet hotel in Sofia,
we were surprised to learn

it was a location of non-stop high school
graduation parties going on for an entire week.

Hot cars, clothes,
rivers of booze,

and lots of young faces
with seemingly bright futures.

The contrast between these young adults and the ones we had left back

at the Roma village
couldn't have been any greater.

Bulgaria is one of the few
countries in the entire world

with a shrinking population.

Are you gonna stay here after you graduate?
- No.

- So why are you leaving?
- There is no future in Bulgaria, like,

everything, like,
this country is filled

with hate and,
like, no tolerance at all,

so I'm probably,
I'm, like, I'm definitely,

like, when I was graduating,
they asked me,

like, what do you
want to do, so, like,

I never, like,
staying in Bulgaria

- to study was never an option.
- Yeah?

I just had to leave,
I know that I have to leave.

With the brightest
young adults forced

to leave the country,
and the poorest,

least educated
being used to rig voting,

I wanted to see if
I could discover a direct link

between the
former communist mafia

and the election meddling currently happening here and back home.

Milla suggested we meet a young
Western thinking politician

who agreed to
participate in our film

in hopes that it would
expose his country's corruption

to a Western audience.

Tell me a little bit
about yourself.

Ln 2013, lvaylo
ran for Prime Minister

against Boyko Borisov, but
according to several experts,

there was proof that
lvaylo got 9 % of the vote.

So when Boyko won in
an overwhelming landslide,

it became obvious that
there was other forces at work.

The next day,
lvaylo called the head members

of his Nova Bulgaria Party
in preparation

for his bid to run
for mayor of a small town.

After losing so hard to Boyko,

maybe this was a
little more realistic.

A few days later, I
received a brutal voice-mail

from a man who had backed lvaylo,
based upon his promise to bring

honest Western thinking
into Bulgarian politics.

According to
lvaylo's Western backer,

lvaylo had gone
against the principles

of the Nova Bulgaria party
by making a sudden coalition

with a former
communist party called VMRO.

Soon after this announcement,
a scandalous video surfaced

of VMRO members beating a
bunch of Jehovah's Witnesses.

The local press
accused the former communists

of being white nationalists.

With the nationwide
election only days away,

we headed to
the tiny farming town

on the outskirts of
Sofia called Elin Pelin.

Okay, so then what
made him decide Elin Pelin?

- The election is Sunday?
- Yes.

Okay, is there any sense right now of, like,
polling of where they are in the polls

and where you are in the polls,
or, like, in polls?

They're putting you in
seventh place right now.

So there's, how many
people are running, seven?

Eleven candidates,
and he's seven right now,

so what's, wow, okay, well.

What are you gonna do?
You better, like--

He better pull
a rabbit out of a hat.

You're gonna win, how?

Learning that
billions of dollars were coming

from foreign investors
made it clear

why the former
communist party of VMRO

would be so interested
in a place like Elin Pelin.

Golden chicken.

Milla, are you excited about voting?
- No.

Today you get a choice.

Before heading into
one of the municipalities,

I decided to check out some of the other political candidates.

It was discovered in
the Paradise Papers data dump

that Russia exerts
localized control,

working through each
individual municipality.

In Bulgaria,
there were 256 mayors,

many acting as a
kind of field lieutenant,

a man or a woman
living amongst the people.

Great.

♪ Rolling, rolling ♪

That night,
we went to the National Palace of Culture to witness the election returns.

From behind a barrier,
we stood with a handful of freezing citizens,

watching a giant TV screen,
guarded by police,

as if we might attack the TV,
if outraged by the results.

Soon, the returns of the
race for mayor were announced,

and to our amazement,
lvaylo had overcome

the incredible odds by
beating Boyko's ruling party.

Was this similar to the
Russian style meddling happening

back in America, or was
lvaylo just an average man,

doing whatever required to win?

Do you believe he
joined the dark side

to win by joining the VMRO?

A few days later,
we went to visit lvaylo

in his new digs,
as the mayor of Elin Pelin.

We were just in time
for the decision

on how to deal with
the local Roma people,

now the election was over.

Let's go inside.

Now, they're,
they're claiming the VMRO is

tied into the communists.

No, let's come
back here later on--

Are you sure he's not gonna go somewhere,
we're not gonna go somewhere?

All right,
all right, have a good one.

Okay.

After accusing
lvaylo of being a communist,

I realize this had little
to do with political ideology,

and everything to do
with money and control.

When I Google Bulgaria,
the most significant thing

that pops up is the fact
that only a few years ago,

in 2013,
they had insane protests.

It was like their own
Bulgarian Spring, what happened?

I decided to meet with a
young man named lvaylo Dinev

and his two close counterparts,

who I was told led
many of the 2013 protests.

During the big protests,
lvaylo led thousands of students who'd blocked the members

of Parliament in their building
for over five hours.

However,
the final result of all this was

that he and the other protestors
had a major falling out

and a parting of the ways.

With all of this corruption
and outside influences,

I wondered why the media wasn't doing anything to expose it all.

When communism fell,
Bulgaria became a free for all

for rich, connected
oligarchs buying up

and privatizing
everything of value

that should belong to the state.

In 2013, with no experience
and no qualifications,

Delyan Peevski was
suddenly appointed Chief

of Bulgaria's
National Security Agency, DANS,

by none other
than his own mother.

I discovered a report, titled
Media Oligarchs Go Shopping,

listing Delyan Peevski as one of the world's 12 top media oligarchs,

part of a consolidated,
shrinking network of ownership

that only serves the
political financial interests

of its owners, all basically
using the same methods.

It was starting to become clear

that although Bulgaria
was a tiny place halfway

around the world,
it was a perfect microcosm

for things
happening in the West.

The next day,
a new report named Bulgaria as being the most corrupt country

inside the European Union.

Fed up with the worsening corruption inside the government,

an independent group of lawyers
and progressive professionals,

calling themselves
the Protest Network,

organized a conference
to decide how

to rid their country
of the mafia.

The guest of honor was an
outsider named Monica Macovei,

a famous Romanian prosecutor
who had quietly worked her way

up the ranks inside the
corrupt government of Romania.

But when the time
was right, she was able

to put dozens of rich,
powerful officials behind bars

for looting the country.

Monica also had
active indictments

on over 1,000 more
suspected officials.

So what's the difference between corruption in Romania,
versus the corruption

that's going on
here in Bulgaria?

Monica was obviously
putting her life in danger

by coming to Bulgaria,
she was very hesitant

to allow me to
interview her, but agreed

when we offered to drive her
directly back to the airport.

I know, that's what I was just thinking,
what is she thinking, like--

We're taking some weird road.
And suddenly, like, this is--

Anyone can pretend it's a--
- I know, we're just like.

Ls there any indication
that anything that's going

on here, goes all the way
up the ladder to Putin?

Monica's statement about Russia wanting corrupted states reminded me

of an old sitcom I grew up
watching, called Get Smart,

where the Russian KGB
was called KAOS,

because if Russia is responsible

for creating chaos today
back in the States,

I would have to admit,
they are succeeding brilliantly.

Right after I asked if anyone believed
that there could be a spy in the room,

a very strange woman started accusing Monica of being a phony.

Later that day,
she appeared all over the Peevski-owned media

with an alternate version of the conference,
calling Monica Macovei a pathetic fraud.

It seemed like she had friends in high places,
but I had an idea,

the next day we contacted
the Peevski TV station,

and told them an
American journalist working

on a cultural travel show
wanted to talk

about how great Bulgaria was.

My plan was simple,
wait until I was on live TV

so I couldn't be censored,
and then defend Monica Macovei

against all the distortions being made by the mafia-owned media.

She said there's been a total
of 44 politicians jailed.

If I could trick the
Peevski censorship machine,

perhaps it would
inspire others to do the same.

Hi, hi, how's it going?

How you doing, hello.

- Hi.
- Hello.

Hi, I'm Kevin, nice to meet you,
thanks for having us.

As soon as the live show started,
I realized my plan had one fatal flaw,

I didn't speak
the local language,

and had no way of
knowing what was being said.

That's it, that's fine, bye.

Left out the best.

I'll never know if
my translation device

was purposefully not working,

but if I ever get another chance

to appear on Bulgarian TV,

I'll use a device
not owned by Peevski.

Yeah.

By the spring of 2014,
it's estimated

that Peevski and his
mother had borrowed hundreds

of millions of dollars,
buying up over 85 %

of all the country's media.

The bulk of this debt
was to a bank known as the CCB,

Corporate
Commercial Bank of Bulgaria.

The bank's main shareholder,
Tzvetan Vassilev,

had become
suspicious of the Peevskis,

and suddenly
demanded full payment.

It was at this time
that Peevski unleashed

his Bulgarian
media machine on Tzvetan

and his family,
by publicly accusing the banker

of attempting to murder him,
causing total panic,

and a run on the bank
that caused it to close.

So, did you personally
lose money on this deal?

Can I ask you
exactly how much did you lose?

When the CC Bank collapsed,
an American company called Ayr Logistics,

based in Dallas, Texas,
also lost 65 million dollars.

Under the watch of
the Bulgarian national bank

C.C.B. Conservator
an American asset

of sixty five million dollars
grew legs and walked away

to the detriment of a U.S. company and to the detriment of

the U.S. bankruptcy
proceedings creditors.

The money had been deposited into the Bulgarian bank after the sale

of a local real estate investment,
north of Sunny Beach.

The
taking of the sixty five million

orchestrated by Peevski
to pay off five company debts

which related to call options

that were being controlled through the Russian V.T.B. bank.

Trying to get one of these shadowy figures
to talk on film was never gonna happen.

However, due to Tzvetan
Vassilev's vulnerable situation,

it could be in his
best interest to talk.

We contacted an
anonymous insider,

and hoped to hear back
from Tzvetan with bated breath.

In the meantime,
while investigating Peevski's bank records,

the team discovered
two huge homes,

side by side, camouflaged
by a much poorer area.

Ah. Wow.

This is it, this is the
moment we've been waiting for.

We're standing out
close to this place,

next to Peevski's house,
and we're launching the drone.

This is our
third attempt at trying

to fly over Peevski's house,
can you see the house?

Yeah, this is the street,
and on the left and right, the buildings.

You know, we have no idea
what the reaction would be, or,

there's been a lot of tension about doing this,
a lot of warnings.

You wouldn't really guess what
we're doing, we're kind of just,

like, standing here,
it doesn't really look like we're flying a drone,

we're just kind of standing
here in the bushes with cameras.

Uhm, posing as just tourists.

People say that Peevski
is the Al Capone of Bulgaria.

According to our researchers,
these two massive homes belong

to Peevski and his mother,
kind of the ultimate mother-in-law plan.

But because of all
their scandals, they were able

to alter the official tax
records in order to make it look

as if they do not own any
such properties inside Bulgaria.

If we could get an
actual glimpse of one

of the Peevskis
inside one of these homes,

it would be a massive scandal.

This could be somebody.

And we go, damn, we
should have got that insurance.

And we're probably not gonna get the best price, either,
by buying it here in Sofia.

Trying to get any dirt on these
shadowy figures was proving

to be harder than I anticipated,

so it was time to
change our tactics.

Hey, these things happen, right?
At least no one got hurt.

While Tzvetan Vassilev
remained the most wanted man

in Bulgaria, we had one thing
the entire media machine

of the country didn't,
a journalist not working for Peevski.

So I don't really,
I don't know you that well,

but, you know, a little,
American style gift.

And I don't know if this is the kind of thing you would like or not.

I don't know, I mean,
if you drink or not.

You like to drink, all right.

Company
registration in Lichtenstein.

Okay.

Yeah, accusing Peevski's mother.

But this is also accusing Tzvetan of the same thing, right?

Knowing he would never
get a fair trial in Bulgaria,

Tzvetan and his family
did the only thing

they could do to protect their
lives, they fled the country.

At the same time, an angry mob

who had lost their
money in the sudden bank run,

gathered in front of
the failed bank, complete

with an amazingly accurate
Tzvetan Vassilev lookalike.

I couldn't help but wonder
if the Peevski machine was

behind this
perfectly staged demonstration.

The team met up
to watch coverage

of Tzvetan's extradition trial,
happening in Serbia.

There he is.
Assen, you're missing it.

A few seconds
after it was announced

that the Serbian
government would protect Tzvetan

against Peevski, Assen received

an encrypted message containing
a secret rendezvous location

of Bulgaria's
most wanted fugitive.

So we hit the road in
hopes of meeting the one man

who truly understood the cost
of Russian style manipulation.

What's the Serbian
national anthem, sing it.

Come on, you guys don't know
the Serbian national anthem?

What do
you know about Serbia?

Looking like a huge what?

What's that?

Like a pastry?

If Tzvetan Vassilev
was sitting right here,

what would you say to him?

We were instructed
not to bring any cameras

or cellphones to
our initial meeting.

In the street,
we were unexpectedly met

by two plainclothes
policemen who escorted us

into the hotel lobby,
where another team

of Tzvetan's personal security searched us,
and ran background checks.

We were then led into a very
nice Serbian grill restaurant,

where we were joined
by Tzvetan and his wife.

For the next few hours,
we got to know each other,

and once Tzvetan
became comfortable,

his security
gave us instructions

to a location where we
could conduct our interview.

Rolling?

Because of how
much money his bank had lent,

many of Tzvetan's detractors
say they had a hard time

believing he wasn't aware of
Peevski's criminal enterprises.

How did his mother come
upon all this wealth and power?

Wow.

Accusing your enemies
of attempted murder was KGB 101.

Ln 2013, the head of
Peevski's Turkish party,

Ahmed Dogan,
staged his own assassination,

creating a groundswell of
support, leading to his victory.

The man with the fake gun
served a very short sentence.

So it came as no surprise when Peevski
applied the same winning strategy

towards the banker, in order
to put the final death nail

in his Bulgarian coffin.

What kind of
personal relationship

did you ever have with Peevski?

Did you ever have a
personal relationship with him?

We interviewed Tzvetan
for over four solid hours,

but the only time he
gave us specific banking details

about Peevski and
the former KGB mafia

was during breaks
away from our cameras.

Tzvetan told us so many schemes,
it could fill an encyclopedia,

but we needed just one lead that we could follow for the film.

Assen published several articles about a Bulgarian tobacco company

that he claimed once
belonged to the people,

but now mostly
belonged all to Peevski.

Bulgartabac
is the Balkan equivalent

of the American
conglomerate, RJ Reynolds,

supplying
tobacco for many brands,

brands like Trump Flights,
Eva Slims, M&Ms, Opal, Select,

Rex, Kenton, Okay,
Stewardess, and Prestige.

Protecting its
own black market trade routes

is top priority
for the Russian mafia.

If I could understand
how privatizing something

like a tobacco company
gives its owning oligarchs

the ability to move
money and products unimpeded

across borders, it would be
an amazing glimpse into a mode

of doing things
that is now happening

with America's
largest competitor, China.

Driving overnight
back into Bulgaria,

I could feel a sense of relief
amongst our Bulgarian crew,

good to be home,
yes, but as it turns out,

they had serious doubts
that we could meet Tzvetan

in Serbia without being tracked
by the former Soviet mafia.

The next morning,
we arrived at the Bulgartabac headquarters, back in Sofia.

A former CIA
acquaintance recommended

that we travel into Turkey,
and meet with a man

who had dedicated
his life to fighting ISIS.

If we could connect the dots between
the old Soviet trade network's privatized

tobacco company and the modern
war on terror, it could be huge.

Look at this.

Here, get a shot of this, who would have ever thought,
in the middle of all these things?

I know,
who would have ever thought?

The equipment we need
to spy on them is right here.

Apparently they
have a place out in the open.

A launchpad,
a proper launchpad.

Oh, yeah, this is awesome.

This is almost worth
the 4,000 bucks, right here.

Well, as, I'd rather break here.

Most Americans,
including myself, couldn't point

to Bulgaria on a map,
but driving from Sofia

to lstanbul made me realize
its geographical significance,

a true crossroads between Europe and the Middle East, Russia,
and America.

In lstanbul,
we met up with Dr. Ahmet Yela,

who had infiltrated
an ISIS social network

while working
undercover in Aleppo.

Posing as an ISIS member inside the network,
Ahmet was able to download thousands

of execution videos,
and had one in particular he wanted to show us.

Yeah, I mean, the camera work looks amazing,
I mean, this looks better than our film.

Those aren't
Prestige cigarettes, are they?

Those are Prestige cigarettes?
Oh, my god.

- Let's see.
- Bulgartabac in the frame.

Researching the past five years of Bulgartabac's
finances revealed a curious anomaly.

Back in 2009,
the Balkan tobacco giant showed

a massive increase in exports.

Curiously, at the same time,
ISIS was gaining strength

under the leadership
of al-Baghdadi.

This Peevski in Bulgaria,
he could ship in,

say, truckloads of
cigarettes off the books,

and have 'em shipped in.
And then, what?

He gets cash under
the table for doing that

and then in turn
that helps finance ISIS?

- This is a party bus.
- It looks like a disco.

It is like a party bus.

Before
heading back into Bulgaria,

Milla bought us
a wishing lantern,

with hopes that it would
fly ahead and bring us luck.

Should we let it go?
- Bring it lower to the ground.

No, it's not going to happen.
Okay, it's flying.

Let it go, it's flying--
- Lt's flying, it's flying.

Watch out, everybody.

He knows what he's doing.
- He knows what he's doing, let's go with this guy.

Kid to the rescue.

What do you do?

- Kid to the rescue.
- Kid to the rescue.

Most Turkish people we spoke to,
knew very little about their ancient neighbors

to the north,
and yet the two countries share

over five centuries
of brutality and peace.

With such a tragic history
of manipulation by outsiders,

I could only hope, for
the young members of our team,

that Bulgaria will
eventually find security,

without the eastern
or western superpowers.

As an American,
visiting Turkey felt like a Middle Eastern neighborhood

in New York, but crossing
back into Bulgaria reminded me

of just how far
from home I really was.

Have a seat for
a while?

The next day,
we went to one of Assen's secret locations

to see if we could get any
more information on Bulgartabac.

A random
custom's inspection

of the
Bulgartabac facility exposed

that the factory was illegally
running around the clock,

most likely manufacturing
off the book cigarettes.

Unable to restore
the 65 million dollars lost

in the Peevski bank takeover,
the Dallas-based company,

Ayr Logistics, was
forced to file for bankruptcy,

initiating an
American-backed investigation

that connected Bulgartabac
and the communication giant,

Vivacom, back to Peevski
and the Russian state bank, VTB.

VTB held two call options for

the Bulgartabac
holdings and Vivacom.

One gave access to Bulgartabac
through the Middle East market

and the other gave access to
telecommunications,

including strategic
sector significance, like NATO

communication, satellites information,
airplane security.

This allows Russia
to participate and have control

and finance certain segments
from that revenue.

Assen suggested that we go
to the main Bulgartabac factory

in a remote mountain town
called Blagoevgrad.

What does VTB stand for?

The American-backed
investigation done

by attorney,
Zahari Tomaf, discovered

that the Russian VTB's interest
in Bulgartabac was twofold.

One, maintain
control over the manufacture

and distribution of
all their cigarette brands

in the Middle East markets,
including Syria,

lran, and Iraq, in direct
violation of UN sanctions,

and two, Russia
would then use these profits

to finance its long arm of regional control in the Middle East.

After only a few minutes of snooping around,
several security guards dressed in black

- began rushing towards our van.

I had never used a bodyguard,
but just the night before,

a friend of mine
operating a non-profit

in Sofia insisted
we use one of his men.

When the men
realized I was an American

with a legally
armed Bulgarian guard,

they instantly backed down,

but they still
insisted we leave.

Time to go?

- Yeah, go.
- Okay.

I googled the name lpon Security from the men's uniforms,
and I discovered

that they were the private
security force for

the Prime Minister of Bulgaria,
Boyko Borisov.

Assen told me that Bulgaria and the other
countries that Russia seeks control over

exist between
the chief prosecutors.

As it just so happen, Putin's right hand man,
Chief Prosecutor Yury Chaika,

was recently spotted
having undocumented meetings

with the Chief Prosecutor
of Bulgaria, Sotir Tsatsarov.

The famous
Russian activist punk band,

playfully named Pussy Riot,

put out a music
video titled Chaika,

showing how the Russian
prosecutor uses the power

of Putin to destroy
enemies and ensure success

for family and comrades.

With Russia,
Turkey, and America all

at Bulgaria's doorstep,
it felt like there was a lot at stake.

The team was running
on fumes, but the discovery

that several countries
could all be controlled

by a single prosecutor might be

the breakthrough
I'd been searching for.

Through a series of Assen's connections,
we're able to get a few minutes

with an insider whose life is dedicated to exposing this fraud.

First of all, I mean,
do you feel like this system

of corruption,
has this, has this leaked in

from another country,
I mean, is this,

is this type of, of
way of controlling people

through the prosecution, I mean,

is this a Bulgarian invention,

or is this a Russian invention,

or is this a mafia invention?

Who invented this
form of blackmailing

through the prosecution office?

On April 15th, 2016,

over 11.5 million
documents were leaked

from one of the
world's largest law firms,

located in Panama,
with offices all over the globe.

The documents contained secret
attorney - client information

for over 200,000
offshore entities.

This data dump has become
known as the Panama Papers.

Inside the Panama Papers,
Assen and his team

of investigators
found irrefutable evidence

of Peevski being
used to siphon money

from the EU via Bulgaria,
ultimately moving it

to offshore accounts,
connecting back

to the ghost-like
Soviet KGB network.

But what do you do with this evidence,
who do you give it to?

Anonymous sources
investigating global fraud

and money laundering rumor
that when the money trail leads

to Bulgaria, they simply
give up, it's a waste of time.

The Panama Papers also aided
the American investigation,

linking VTB's interest in the Vivicom Group Telecommunications Company

with access into all
cellphones and lnternet traffic.

This also gave them control
over the radio frequencies

and telecommunications
for military,

diplomatic, civil,
and commercial aircraft and satellites,

all supposedly
operating inside a NATO state.

Russia also gained back control over 850
radio frequency broadcasting towers,

and the Plana
satellite station covering most

of Africa it had lost
at the fall of communism.

The time I spent with Jordan caused
me to share in his pain and contempt

for the corrupt government threatening the future of his children,

but Jordan wasn't the kind of guy to give up without a fight,

and I respected the fact
that he wasn't afraid

to go up against the gangsters
holding his country hostage.

Later that day,
he brought us to the steps of the chief prosecutor's office

to meet the leader of the protest network,
an attorney named Nikolay Stoykov,

who had also dedicated his life to dismantling
the old Soviet style trade network.

The over
2.3 billion euro loss

in the CCB crash
wasn't only corporations.

There were nearly 8,000
private Bulgarian citizens

whose life savings
also vanished.

With no one to turn to,
thousands of citizens took

to the streets, one slogan,
"who is the other fat man",

showed the chief prosecutor
inside Peevski's shadow.

Later that day,
yet another report came out,

citing Bulgaria as the
most corrupt country in Europe.

I came here with the
intention of shedding light

on the Russian meddling
going on back in the States,

but the frustration of
these people's situation

was really
starting to get me depressed.

Oh my god, this is so fun.
- Hey, Toni.

This is awesome,
are you on your new computer?

I look gross.

Oh, no.

Oh, this is
the first Skype ever.

At dinner,
the young Roma girl,

Toni, Skyped us,
I was so excited,

until I learned that she was
calling from a pawn shop to say

that her parents were
selling her computer

to buy tickets for a carnival.

The next day, we
headed back to the Roma village,

with the intention of getting
Toni's computer out of hock.

I'm sorry.

That's very sweet,
that's very sweet.

Doing anything in
Bulgaria requires permission

from one of the many ministries left behind by the Soviet Union.

Okay.

Back when we gave
Toni a laptop computer,

she promised us that
she would stay in school.

But the reality of their
lives often puts simple things,

like finding food,
ahead of an education.

We had been trying to get Toni to learn just a little basic English,

in hopes that one day
she could visit America.

With several failed
attempts at hiring tutors

and private teachers,
it was frustrating

to learn that there was an
English class in Toni's school,

but she wasn't in it.

What about:

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

All right, it's your birthday?

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

♪ Jingle bells, jingle bells ♪

♪ Jingle all the way ♪

We've been trying to
help this one girl here,

Toni, who we've been
following for a while, and,

you know, we started off
trying to teach her English,

- and to be honest with you, it just hasn't gone so well.
- Okay.

And it's disappointing to me to come here
and see that she's not even in her class.

Is it too late to get Toni into this class?
What should we do?

So what made you want
to be in a Roma school?

It's said that the only
future occupation guaranteed

to the young Roma children
is that of pimp or prostitute.

So in hopes of inspiring
a few kids to stay in school,

Jordan was able to
contact a young Roma man

who also grew up
in a poor village,

but was now a
renowned medical doctor.

Toshko told us that
if he couldn't find work,

his wife would have
to become a prostitute,

and Toni could
possibly follow right behind.

Toshko said he
wanted to open a coffee shop

in the village, hoping to keep
Toni out of the brides mart,

we made a small donation.

Hoping to see
the big picture of how

post Cold War Russia
exerts its control over

other countries, I contacted
an associate, Robert Steel,

who had been a longtime intelligence officer for the CIA.

After several trials
and tribulations, he was able

to get us a brief meeting
with a former KGB agent

and four star
Russian general, Oleg Kalugin.

What did you mean when you said that Bulgarians were the most kindred

to the Russian mindset?

The Bulgarians had everything they needed to rid their country

of the criminals,
but the problem was that the top protest leaders stopped communicating

with each other after the fallout from the massive 2014 protests.

I needed a way to somehow
get them all back together,

just one more time,
and perhaps spark a protest

that couldn't be stopped.

Back in 2012,
an all-girl punk band called Pussy Riot staged a protest

against Putin by
performing on the alter

of Moscow's
Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

The lead singer, Nadya, and
her collaborators were sentenced

to two years of hard labor
at a Siberian prison camp.

However, the silver lining to the story was
the massive global fame that came to them,

and a kind of
title of being some

of the greatest
protestors of all time.

Did you hear about
the girl band, Pussy Riot,

that staged that protest,
and all that?

But was it the church
that pressured Putin

into locking
them up for two years?

But
they spent-- but Nadya

and the other girls
spent two years in prison.

Wandering around
inside the Russian embassy,

I felt like a kid in
some sort of evil candy store.

I didn't want to leave,
but being here gave me an idea.

Really cool. Oh, yeah.
- I'd love to have a party here.

The two main protest leaders who
represented completely different factions

had a huge falling out
after the 2014 protests,

and swore they would
never work together again.

However, if we wanted to
trigger a truly huge protest,

it was imperative they bury their Bulgarian hatchet and join forces again.

My plan was simple, invite
each one of them separately

to meet with the
members of Pussy Riot,

while excluding the fact
the other would be there.

With Pussy Riot as the bait,
how could it fail?

Pussy Riot's trademark move was concealing their identities

by wearing brightly colored
ski masks called balaclavas.

We met with a protestor
that recently had been arrested

for mimicking Pussy Riot by painting the
heads of the Soviet war monuments.

We were able
to contact Pyotr Verzilov,

the lead singer's
husband and group's manager,

who agreed to come
to Sofia with Nadya

and one of the other
members of the band.

With Pussy Riot en route,
we went to see some of the monuments

that were pissing everybody off.

Seeing these Soviet
war monuments still standing

in the sovereign nation of Bulgaria reminded me of the controversy

back home over the Confederate statues from the American Civil War.

This gave me an idea.
What if we leaked a rumor to the media

that Pussy Riot was
gonna stage a trademark action

at the Soviet war monument?

Hopefully it would
cause a tidal wave of attention,

thereby reuniting
the protestors,

and perhaps injecting them
with Pussy Riot's punk spirit.

There was just one problem,
the statues' heads

were way too big for
store-bought balaclavas.

With Pussy Riot arriving in a matter of hours,
we found the only open store in Sofia

that had colored material,
and stayed up all night cutting holes in 20 new dresses.

Before the
Russian punk rockers arrived,

I felt it was my patriotic duty

to teach the Bulgarians the
correct history of punk rock.

You want some action?

No
questions about the pig.

The next day,
our plan fell into full effect

when the two rivaling
leaders sat together

and broke bread.
If this didn't spark a protest,

I was fresh out of ideas.

Getting the media's
attention sealed the deal,

and a new plan was hatched
to surround Parliament

during their next session.

With the protestors surrounding the parliament building,
pressure inside

to expose the former
Soviet network came to a boil.

That was until Peevski
made a surprise appearance,

reminding everyone
who they really worked for.

Ln a last ditch
effort at damage control,

Boyko called an
emergency press conference.

Numerous attempts
at interviewing Peevski,

Boyko, and the American
embassy went totally ignored.

But with many of the key players

inside the parliament building,

the thousands of
bank crash victims

and other law abiding
citizens were going

to force them to listen,
one way or the other.

When I first met Jordan,
he was already an activist, but I'd like to think

that a little of my American
rebel spirit wore off on him.

Ln the summer of 2017,

Tzvetan's daughter, was arrested
at the Belgrade airport.

However, it was
quickly discovered that

Bulgarian officials had
manipulated

the interpol system
for political revenge.

Back in 2009,
a Russian accountant

and lawyer named Sergei Magnitsky was tortured to death in prison,
after uncovering

a 230 million dollar tax fraud
directly linked to Putin.

Putin is the richest man in the world,
I would estimate he's worth 200 billion dollars,

and much of that money
is held by nominees offshore,

and that money will eventually be frozen,
under the Magnitsky Act,

if he ever loses his
power as President of Russia.

Ln 2016,
Congress enacted

the global Magnitsky Act,
allowing the US government

to sanction foreign officials implicated in human rights abuses anywhere

in the world, including Russia.

They, there were
two effectively agents

of the Russian government
who went to Donald Trump Jr.,

and said, "Can you
help us withdraw this act

if your father
gets elected president?"

Ln November of 2017,
Tzvetan Vassilev hired

an American law firm in hopes
of placing criminal sanctions

against Peevski
through the U.S. Magnitsky Act.

Placing officials like
Peevski into key positions

is something that all Mafia's
and governments engage in.

But what I discovered is that Bulgaria is a small copy of Russia

with the same wild privatization benefiting
the communist and KGB industrial complex,

a type of genesis of oligarchs formed from a
carbon copy of old Communist Party appointees,

fully in control of the Judicial
system, election outcomes,

and most importantly
money & power.

The U.S. based lawsuit against Peevski,
accuses the oligarch and VTB bank

of using
American money,

to take control over
Bulgartabac, Vivacom,

and over a hundred weapons manufacturers supplying the Middle East.

Many Americans forget that
over 20 million Russians died

in order to defeat the Nazi's,

and when the Soviet Union fell,
it put a permanent scar on Russia.

So it shouldn't be
shocking to the West

that Putin success will
ultimately be measured

by his restoration of
the great empire.

The Cold War may have ended,
but the war on basic freedom,

democracy, and rights continues.

Before heading back to America,
we had one last stop. We had given our Roma friend,

Toshko, a little financial help to build
the first of its kind gypsy coffee shop.

A few members of the crew wagered me
that the gypsies probably used the money

for something else,
but I had to have faith.

Obviously many of the richest people in Bulgaria were not honest,
but I was hoping

that maybe, just maybe,
some of the poorest were.

Yeah.
- What if, like, it was just an amazing coffee shop,

we pull up, and we were like,
all just like, damn, you did it.

We'll eat our words.
- Like, huge beautiful sign, big entrance.

- Is that crazy?
- Toshko.

Is this the coffee shop?

Is that Toshko, what?

- Oh, my God.
- What?

- Wait, no.
- That's not it.

That can't--
- it looks like a coffee shop.

Are they
staging this for us?

Yeah.

This could be an elaborate
theatrical performance.

Yeah, check it out.

- Crew cheering]
- Wow.

Hi,
how are you, I love that baby.

This is amazing.

This is great,
I'm totally impressed.

So how's business?

This place is
making millions, come on.

So you just feeding electricity to some other building,
or taking it from another building?

That's awesome.

Perfect.

Bye.

Milla, can you help with the door?
Milla, can you help with the big door?

- Yeah.
- Thanks, girl.

I came to this tiny country with the
expectation of finding a total breakdown

in society, but with all
the hatred and discourse going

on back in the States,
I realize that whatever it was

that Bulgaria had been
through had also created

a lasting sense
of unity and values

that seemed to
circumvent politics and money.

I found a famous
Bulgarian quote.

Translated, it says,
"The best time to plant a tree

was 20 years ago,
the second best time is now."