The annoying habit of Sofia authorities to mark official delegations’ arrivals with putting the whole city on hold, repeated itself once again with Putin’s latest formal visit on January 17 and 18. The surreal, somewhat ghostly look of the town inspired Belgian journalist Lode Desmet to reflect on what the Russian president missed to see, while in the Bulgarian capital.

Putin`s pilot was able to make out just enough of the Sofia airport landing strip to land. Afterwards things became blurry for the Russian president.

First Vladimir Putin was driven at neck-breaking speed to the city centre of the Bulgarian capital Sofia. The trip took just nine minutes. A record. But one, that left him see nothing of the city.

He will certainly not have seen any speed limit signs. He might not even have seen any signposts indicating where he was actually going. He may for all we know have wondered where he was?

A strange country for sure. With utterly empty streets.

No cars. No traffic jams. But also: no people. What am I doing here – Putin must have asked himself? A man can’t be a leader of the people without people to lead.

Although maybe he thought just the opposite: what a fantastic country! Where only policemen are allowed to go out and get a taste of the winter sun. Where everybody applauds when I come in…

The city centre of Sofia looked as if Bulgaria had never left the communist era. Putin didn’t see the changes. Although for that he may be forgiven - in his honour the Bulgarian Socialist government did its best so that they WERE hard to see.

Putin also didn’t see one of the best restaurants in town: Checkpoint Charlie. A pity. The Bulgarian leaders could have taken him there for old times`sake. Revel in nostalgia, or, rather, in Ostalgia. To enhance the impression that nothing has changed even more.

Putin was a KGB officer in East Germany and witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall there in 1989. At “Checkpoint Charly” he would have had the choice to sit in the “West” or the “East Zone” of the restaurant.

But he didn’t go and so didn’t see. It’s a pity to travel if you can’t look around…

One of the things he also didn’t see, was that on the Novinite website his first name was changed from “Vladimir” to “Valdimir.” This may have been a simple spelling mistake. But it may also have been the unwitting reference of a young reporter to Harry Potter’s arch enemy: Voldemor.

How did the Bulgarian authorities meet Putin you can see here.
And here you can see how happy were the rest of Sofia's residents.