There's actually an inverse correlation between corruption and GDP, and a few studies showing that lowering of corruption directly boosted economic prosperity.

I wish more people actively brought up corruption, literally the most fundamental thing to fight.

The corrupted politicians and people are only interested in enriching themselves at the expense of everything else. For them being a client state of either Russia or the EU makes no difference because they know that to reverse the course of the country it takes more than one generation and nobody has time for that especially when you are buying your next super yacht.

What is your point?

I thought I made it clearly but I'm happy to repeat. The post-Soviet-collapse socio-political developments in Bulgaria are (for a lot of obvious reasons) almost, but not quite, entirely unlike those of the actual Soviet collapse.

One of these obvious reasons is that Bulgaria is a small country. Especially compared to the Soviet Union. Which was a big country. In fact, the biggest one.

Fast forward to today, Liviu Dragnea is serving time for abuse of power, Bulgaria is still dealing with corruption and the Hungary government continues its assault on democracy.

It's beggar's belief why any of these nations membership has not been suspended.

While the arrangement has been very beneficial for us, let's not forget that the EU does need a market to sell inferior products at a premium and they do need our seasonal workers and our educated as well, who would otherwise flee to the US and elsewhere.

I cannot speak for other countries, but seeing the vitriol here gives me a deja vu of the anti-Romanians Brexit campaign.

You know, it was hilarious seeing the UK begging us to send them workers in this Covid crisis ;-)

I am optimistic however. These things happen in a two steps forward, one step back fashion. And unfortunately for the corrupt in this country the geenie is already out of the bottle.

You'll see in the following years.

My Romanian bretheren tend to be more pessimistic. I recommend this book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34890015-factfulness

Bulgaria: Export surplus to Germany https://oec.world/en/profile/country/bgr

Romania: Balanced trade https://oec.world/en/profile/country/rou

Would you mind clarifying what you're referring to?

You need to own the value chain if you want to get richer.

So, thank you for shedding light on the whole of the German plot. I hadn't realized that the Eastern Europe countries were admitted to the EU so the German industry could source components and raw materials without import fees.

The only two alternatives are no trade, or a perfectly balanced trade. Neither one are realistic goals.