Arms dealer Emilian Gebrev is “100% sure” that Russian operatives were behind an explosion and subsequent fire at one of his depots in the country on Sunday.
“There is no way this could be an accident, there was nothing in the building that could have detonated without outside interference,” Emilian Gebrev said in a telephone interview with The Guardian.
It is the fifth time in recent years that blasts have occurred at facilities belonging to Emco, Gebrev’s arms company. Bulgarian prosecutors have linked previous attacks to Russian operatives, the Guardian writes.
Gebrev fell into a coma in 2015 and western authorities and intelligence agencies believe he was poisoned with the nerve agent novichok by officers from Russian military intelligence, the GRU. He said this weekend’s fire was likely to be their work as well.
Whatever the reason, Gebrev has apparently made powerful enemies in Russia. Between 2011 and 2020, blasts hit four warehouses and production facilities linked to his company. Last year, the Bulgarian foreign ministry expelled a Russian diplomat over suspected Russian involvement in the blasts, and called on Moscow to help with the investigation, The Guardian writes.
Overnight it will be mostly clear. Winds will weaken and die down in many areas. In the morning it will be cold, with minimum temperatures between minus 7 and minus 2°C, reaching minus 10°C in the valleys and around minus 9°C in Sofia. Tomorrow will be..
The planned annual maintenance of Unit 6 of Bulgaria's only NPP, Kozloduy, has been completed. The unit was connected to the national grid at 10:07 following an inspection by the Nuclear Regulatory Agency. In addition to the repairs made to improve..
A quadripartite meeting of the interior ministers of Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria and Romania in Budapest on 22 November made it clear that Austria would lift its veto and that Bulgaria and Romania would probably become full members of Schengen from the..
“It’s time to lift internal border controls now,” European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson believes. In an interview with RFE/RL she..
The Constitutional Court has opened a case following the request by President Rumen Radev for the amendments to the Constitution, endorsed by the 49 th..
Romania and Bulgaria have a chance to join the Schengen area by land as of January 2025 , Hungarian Interior Minister Sándor Pinter said after an..
+359 2 9336 661