Russian Pop Star Shells Own Cash to Bring Fellow Country People Home from Bulgaria

Russian celebrity pop singer, Bulgarian-born, Philip Kirkorov, says Bulgaria is his second home and he did not want its image as a tourist destination to be tarnished over a business dispute. Photo by actualno.com

Russian celebrity pop singer, Bulgarian-born, Philip Kirkorov, had wired money to several Russian tourists to come home from their vacation in Bulgaria.

The news was reported Wednesday by the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti, cited by the Bulgarian BTA.

Upon learning that several Russian families, including one with a sick child, were stranded in Bulgaria, Kirkorov sent them money to board a flight home.

"As a Bulgarian national, I decided this is my duty and a matter of personal honor and reacted quickly by sending money. Thank God, there is a possibility to resolve the crisis with those stranded families," the pop star is quoted saying, adding he did not remember the exact number of people he helped.

"Seven, eight, nine – it does not matter. The most important thing is for them to come home and wish to visit Bulgaria again," he stated.

The celebrity is further cited saying for him Bulgaria was not just a county, but his second home, and he did not want its image tarnished.

"These business disputes should not reflect on the hospitality of Bulgarian people, who always expect Russian visitors with joy," Kirkorov concludes.

At the end of June, the singer was himself involved in a scandal related to the Bulgarian Black Sea coast when several Russian celebrities cried foul over what they perceived as a disgusting smell in their luxurious apartments at a Bulgarian Black Sea resort.

Kirkorov and other Russian pop stars, among whom Lolita Milyavskaya and Nadezhda Babkina, have protested against the smell they were forced to endure in the apartments they have bought in the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Burgas, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported at the time.

Meanwhile, also on Wednesday, Bulgarian Transport Minister, Ivaylo Moskovski, made a promise that all Russian tourists, who are still in Bulgaria, will be taken home, calling an end of the crisis.

Some 700 Russians, 200 Finns and dozens of persons from Lithuania waited for days to get home after their flights were canceled last Friday and Saturday, due to an alleged EUR 3.6 M debt to national carrier Bulgaria Air from operator Alma Tours.