4 Bulgarians Arrested in Russia in Wake of Diplomatic Premise Raid

Four Bulgarians have been arrested by the Russian police force OMON in Moscow. Photo by Novaya Gazeta

Four Bulgarian citizens have been arrested in Moscow in the wake of Thurday’s raid of the Russian police on the Bulgarian Industrial Center in Russia’s capital.

The names of the four men arrested late Thursday night are Nikolay Nikolov, Kostadin Kostov, Krasimir Velchev, and Simeon Borisov, the Bulgarian National Radio reported.

The four men are related with the Bulgarian company “Millenium 2001” whose offices and rented apartments at the Bulgarian Industrial Center in Moscow were targeted by the Russian police forces on Thursday. The exact positions of the four men at the company have not been made public yet.

The police have taken the mobile phones of the four Bulgarians and have not provided them with any aid from attorneys. No information is available yet as to what the Bulgarian Embassy in Moscow is going to undertake in order to guarantee the rights of the Bulgarian citizens.

A senior representative of the Economic Security Department of the Russian Interior Ministry has told Novinite.com that the Bulgarian firm Millenium 2001 is under investigation for the production and distribution of pirate CDs including software and audio-visual materials.

The company runs a CD production facility at Zelenograd, 30 km away from Moscow.

The police raid on the Bulgarian Industrial Center in Moscow has caused diplomatic tension between Bulgaria and Russia since the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry claims the Center is part of the Bulgarian Embassy and therefore enjoys a diplomatic immunity status under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The Russian authorities, however, say the Center has no such status.

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