Prosecutor-Putinist /not/ investigates the Russian attacks in Bulgaria

A Putin fan is investigating the attempted poisoning of arms manufacturer Emilian Gebrev, his son and the commercial director of Emko in April 2015. Another prosecutor, Nikolay Naydenov, who was trained in Russia, is actively involved in the battle for the Dunarit arms factory on the side of Peevski against Gebrev.

Detelin Georgiev is a prosecutor from the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office (Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office) and takes over the case No. 7107/2015 of the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office (the “Bulgarian Novichok” case) from his colleague Boyko Konakchiyski, with whom he works in the same room. Other prosecutors who worked on this case are Stefan Rachev and, since 2021, Zoya Mananska.

Georgiev can be seen in photographs together with the then Deputy Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev, during a working visit to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia in May 2018.

Detelin Georgiev is among the prosecutors and employees of the Ministry of Interior awarded in 2019 for “achieved results in landmark investigations“. The awards were presented by the then Interior Minister Mladen Marinov (GERB), Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov and his deputy Ivan Geshev.

The visits of Tsatsarov and Geshev and their agreements with their Russian counterparts pave the way for a wider opening of the Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office to Russian influence and for briefing other Bulgarian prosecutors in the form of trainings in Moscow. We can only guess what they were taught, because the information is classified, but their communication with their Russian colleagues took place at a time when the first information about the terrorist activities of the Russian special services in Bulgaria began to appear – explosions of objects of our arms industry and attempts to assassinate senior managers.

At the meeting in Russia in May 2018, as can be seen from the photo (next to Ivan Geshev, in the distance), there was also a prosecutor who became famous for the “sprinklers” – prosecutor Evgenia Shtarkelova, former deputy head of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office, current military prosecutor and unsuccessful candidate for judge.

A BIRD study came across photos and was able to identify the names of 6 (six) Bulgarian prosecutors who were trained in Russia in 2018.

Bulgarian prosecutors on training/retraining in Russia, from the “first class” of the “University of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation“. Photo: October 16, 2018

From left to right in the foreground: (1) proc. Slavka Slavova, retired in 2019 as a prosecutor at the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office; (2) proc. Nikolay Hristov, then Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office, now Supreme Prosecutor’s Office; (3) Colonel Emil Angelov, graduated from the Military University in Moscow, former head of the Military District Prosecutor’s Office in Plovdiv, retired in 2023; (4) Prosecutor Evgenia Shtarkelova – who became famous for the “sprinklers”, former deputy head of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office and current military prosecutor; (5) Yuri Ponomarev – Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia; (6) Oksana Kapinus – Rector of the University of the Prosecutor’s Office of Russia; (7) Prok. Nikolay Naydenov – former Deputy Head of the Appellate Specialized Prosecutor’s Office (SAA), now the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office; (8) Rumen Boev – former member of the SJC, retired in 2020 as Deputy Head of the AP-Plovdiv. The pension is obviously not enough for him, because in 2020 he filed a lawsuit against the SJC with a request for indexation of more than BGN 57 thousand.

In the background you can see the Russian hosts from left to right: (4) Natalia Koval – Dean of the Faculty, (5) Nina Shalumova – Vice-Rector of the University.

In the photos below (from left to right): prosecutors Nikolay Naydenov, Rumen Boev and Nikolay Hristov with certificates for advanced training handed to them by the Rector of the University – Oksana Kapinus and Yuri Ponomarev – Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia.

An interesting fact is that another “Russian graduate” is related to the case of Emilian Gebrev and the attempts of companies associated with Delyan Peevski to take control of the Dunarit arms factory. In order to serve these measures, Tsatsarov and Geshev were activated to take out the prosecutor’s bat and the prosecutor’s office opened a case for an organized crime group for abuses in Dunarit, in which Gebrev, father and son, and the entire management of the plant were accused. At that time, the “qualified” in Russia Nikolay Naydenov, a prominent cadre of Tsatsarov’s “special forces“, pleaded in the Appellate Specialized Prosecutor’s Office that the financial director of the Dunarit arms factory – Nikola Kirov – should remain in custody (a total of 8 months). As a reward, Naydenov was promoted to the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office.

The Prosecutor’s Office: Russia is our friend. Eternal friendship!

The Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office was created on the Russian (Soviet) model and manifests itself as such even after Bulgaria is already a member of NATO and the EU.

In 2008 (Bulgaria is now in the EU and NATO), Prosecutor General Boris Velchev – known as “Bratinho” and Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika signed an agreement for cooperation between the prosecutor’s offices of Bulgaria and Russia.

In early 2014, Russia began its war against Ukraine by annexing Crimea and setting fire to Donbas. During this period, the agents of GRU unit 29155 were already walking undisturbed around Bulgaria, which was becoming an important base for them and for regional operations in the Balkans. Their operational groups on our territory were especially active in the first half of 2015, when in March and April the sites of the Sopot Naval Plant were blown up, the Novichok attack was carried out against the three Bulgarian citizens, and in early June, American instructors were blown up at a test site in Bulgaria. Not long after, in a guarded warehouse of the Ministry of Interior in Sofia, some material evidence from the investigations into the explosions was set on fire and destroyed.

In 2017, the Bulgarian parliament defined Russia as a threat to Bulgaria’s security interests.

At that time, the Prosecutor General of Russia, Yuri Chaika, came to Bulgaria on an official visit, who was welcomed as head of state and received at the highest level, including by Prime Minister Borissov and the Bulgarian Patriarch.

The main host is the Prosecutor General of Bulgaria Sotir Tsatsarov. Then he made his historic statement, contrary to the official state position:

“It is the most untrue and the most wrong thing to define Russia as a threat to Bulgaria’s national security. … Bulgarian interests require her to be seen as a friend.” Interview for 24 Hours newspaper

These words of Tsatsarov became a kind of indication of the policy of his subordinate prosecutor’s office.

During this visit, Sotir Tsatsarov and Yuri Chaika signed a cooperation program, incl. contract for training Bulgarian prosecutors at the Academy of the Prosecutor’s Office of Russia. The contract is for the period 2017 – 2019, with an option to extend the term.

The prosecutor with “sprinklers“, a former member of the SJC and senior prosecutors, incl. Military District Prosecutor, are among the ‘first class‘ who graduated in 2018 from the University of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation.

The prosecutor’s office has repeatedly refused to disclose how many and which prosecutors were trained in Russia. After being convicted and following media reports, the prosecutor’s office nevertheless reported 7 prosecutors who were trained in Moscow in 2018 and 3 by mid-2019.

Later, the next Prosecutor General, Ivan Geshev, continued not to share information about his ties with the Russian Prosecutor’s Office. At the beginning of 2023, Geshev appeared at official meetings in the United States with a Russian watch – the Polet brand, the Peter the Great model with the coat of arms of Russia.

Against the backdrop of this Russian-Bulgarian magistrate friendship in the period 2011-2023, in addition to the attempts to kill Bulgarian citizens with Novichok, (the prosecutor in whose case is the Putin fan Detelin Georgiev) on the territory of Bulgaria, which is a member of NATO and the EU, there were more than 10 explosions and other attempts at sabotage in defense industry facilities. With noisy, episodic actions of the State Agency for National Security and the Prosecutor’s Office, several cases of espionage in favor of Russia with the participation of Bulgarian citizens were announced. In none of these numerous breaches of Bulgaria’s national security have the actions of the Prosecutor’s Office led to a result and there is not a single completed trial. Instead, there are repeatedly returned unfit indictments – for example, for the “Resident’s Five”, as you can see here and here.

So far, there is no other logical explanation for this fact, except for the deep penetration of the state prosecution by Russian interests, influence, and possibly direct influence. On this topic, the silence of the special services, the executive and legislative authorities and other state institutions betrays the ugly complicity.

Lead photo/collage: Acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov (in the middle, photo PRB, 2024), former Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov (right) and former Prosecutor General of Russia Yuri Chaika in 2017 (photo PRB). Collage: BIRD.BG

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