Russia Denies Diplomatic Status of Police-Raided Bulgarian Premise

Russia does not recognize the diplomatic status of the Bulgarian Industrial Center in Moscow. Pictured: Bulgaria's ex-PM Stanishev at an economic exhibit there in 2008.

Thursday’s raid of the Bulgarian Industrial Center in Moscow carried out by the Russian police was fully legal.

This has been stated Friday by Andrey Nesterenko, Spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, regarding the claims of the Bulgarian government that the administrative and residential buildings of the Center enjoyed diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

In a special operation Thursday, the Russian police forces raided offices and apartments of the Bulgarian company Millenium 2001, and later arrested three Bulgarian citizens related to its on charges of production and distribution of pirate CDs with software and audio-visual materials.

“This operation was not directed against the Bulgarian Industrial Center, and was carried out in full compliance with the Russian and international law,” Spokesperson Nesterenko said as cited by RIA Novosti.

“As far as the question about the diplomatic status of the Center is concerned, it generates serious doubts: more specifically, it has not been written down in the documents under which the Center was founded,” the Russian Foreign Ministry representative declared.

In his words, the Bulgarian Industrial Center leases offices to a few dozen Bulgarian firms which rules out any possibility that any diplomatic status it might have under the Vienna Convention could apply to these companies.

The negotiations between Bulgaria and Russia over the status of the BIC in Moscow are continuing.

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