On May 24, the day of Bulgarian Education, Culture and the Slavonic Script, Bulgarians learned that in Moscow Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a meeting with Macedonian counterpart Gjorge Ivanov that the Slavic script had come to Russia from Macedonian lands. The news provoked a surprise, strong enough for a famous historian to say the news was probably fake and aimed to cause an international scandal. Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva recalled that the creation of the Cyrillic alphabet was created at the will and with the participation of the Bulgarian state and that five years ago the very Russian Patriarch Kiril, said it were the Bulgarians who brought literacy to Russia. Speaking with Moscow's ambassador to Sofia, Prime Minister Borissov commented that such a statement on May 24, which is an official holiday in Bulgaria, cause clearly understandable reactions. It is, however, noteworthy that the reactions are not only sharp but also surprisingly unambiguous. According to the chairman of the Foreign Policy Committee and GERB MP Dzhema Grozdanova, Vladimir Putin's statement on the Cyrillic script was part of a consistent policy of the Russian Federation towards the countries of the Western Balkans. According to her, this policy is aimed at moving these countries away from their path to EU membership.
Otherwise known for his sympathies for Russia, Co-President of the United Patriots Coalition, Volen Siderov, commented sarcastically that there was an obvious progress in Russia, as in the past Russians were taught that Lenin had invented the alphabet and now they think it came from the Macedonian lands. The reaction of BSP leader Cornelia Ninova was also sharp. Known as one of Borisov's most furious opponents, on this occasion, she said she could not accept such an attitude from Moscow and described the position of the ruling party as moderate and adequate.
That was not the assessment of the Russian Foreign Ministry, whose spokeswoman Maria Zaharova told TASS that the wave of criticism in Bulgarian media was triggered by misinterpretation of what President Vladimir Putin actually said. Talking to the Macedonian President in Moscow that the Slavic script had come to Russia from Macedonian lands, Putin meant Macedonian lands as a geographic concept from the times of the Roman Empire. However, this interpretation does not explain why President
Putin did not use the geographic concept for Russian lands, which, as prominent Bulgarian historian Kazimir Popkonstantinov recalled, were not yet called Russia, but Kievan Rus, i.e. Ukraine.
According to the spokesman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zaharova, the reactions in Bulgaria were an "artificially blown scandal" that can bring tension in the Russian-Bulgarian relations. Time will show whether this would happen or not. According to Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, Slavic nations will be united only if history was respected, and added its use in politics did not always lead to desired results.
English: Alexander Markov
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