MOSCOW, Dec 27 The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry summoned Russian Ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova to talk about the journalist Hristo Grozev, according to the Bulgarian National Television (BNT).
«We inform you that due to the fact that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation has put Bulgarian investigative journalist Hristo Grozev on the federal wanted list, Russian Ambassador to Sofia Eleonora Mitrofanova has been summoned to a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the first working day after the holidays,» the statement said.
According to the production calendar, the Christmas holidays will last in Bulgaria until December 28 inclusive.
The Foreign Ministry clarified that at the meeting they also plan to raise the topic of learning the Bulgarian language in new regions of Russia: the department claims that they allegedly introduced a ban on its study — while no examples are given. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also plans to announce the alleged facts of «taking portraits of Bulgarian historical figures» — also without giving specific examples or providing evidence.
On Monday, it became known that the Russian Interior Ministry put Grozev on the wanted list. The source said that a criminal case was opened against the chief investigator of the publication Bellingcat * for spreading fakes about the Russian army.
The FSB said in July that a native of Bulgaria, Hristo Grozev, participated in the operation of the Ukrainian military intelligence, which tried to hijack the aircraft of the Aerospace Forces. Later, he said that Kyiv did try to recruit Russian pilots for this task, but its role was limited to documenting the events.
According to the materials of the FSB, Russian counterintelligence in that operational game received data thanks to which the Armed Forces eventually destroyed several Ukrainian military facilities involved in the operation.
Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Sergey Naryshkin noted that Bellingcat * was created to put pressure not only on any country, but also on individuals and legal entities. The department has information about who manages this «project of supposedly journalistic investigations», in which former employees of the special services also work.
* Media acting as a foreign agent.