Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev | Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images Bulgarian president: Russia aims to weaken Europe Rosen Plevneliev: Europe is not doing enough to counter Moscow’s spreading influence.

Russia is trying to divide and weaken Europe, Bulgarian president Rosen Plevneliev told the BBC Friday, two days before presidential elections in his country.

Plevneliev warned that Russia was gaining influence across the Continent by funding populist parties and extremist movements, and destabilizing its opponents with cyber attacks.

Europe is involved in a "dangerous and unpredictable" confrontation, he said, and will need to take a stronger line against the Kremlin. It's not the new Cold War, but a "Cold Peacetime," he said.

"The game in Europe today is not to have a full-scale war and to shoot against your enemy, but the game of Mr. Putin is to make other countries dependent," Plevneliev said.

Russia — which has links to 20-25 percent of the Bulgarian economy — has leveraged its economic influence to exert control on key political institutions, according to Martin Vladimirov at the Center for the Study of Democracy in Sofia.

Plevneliev told the BBC he was concerned that Britain leaving the European Union would make it harder to pursue a stronger line on Russia, since the U.K. had supported his tougher position on European security.

The president's criticism of Moscow ahead of the elections has angered some. The question of whether Bulgaria, an EU and NATO member, should face Europe or Russia could be a key issue in Sunday's election.

Plevneliev is not running for re-election and will step down in January.