Russia’s Ambassador: Bulgaria is Rewriting its History

Relations between Bulgaria and Russia are at the lowest level for the entire post-socialist period, the Russian ambassador to Bulgaria Eleonora Mitrofanova said in an interview with TASS.

"Today, the level of our bilateral relations is the lowest for the entire post-socialist period. Official contacts are purely situational, Bulgarian colleagues call if they need something, and ours most often ignore them. There is not even an exchange of views on current issues of the international agenda. A large number of politicians and media try to connect everything negative that happens in Bulgaria with Russia, explaining the emerging problems with 'strong Russian influence', and in criminal cases they look for 'Russian traces'. However, all this is fiction , an effort to impose on Bulgarian citizens an extremely negative image of Russia. It seems to me that this has not yet been achieved, sociological surveys show that 65% of citizens have a positive attitude towards our country. The strongest vaccine against negative attitudes is our common history - it still works, but time will tell if it will continue to work with the change of generations," said Mitrofanova.

Bulgarian politicians are doing the West's bidding by trying to rewrite history and cancel everything related to Russia, the Russian ambassador pointed out.

According to her, in Sofia they are trying to review the events of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878, after which Bulgaria returned to the political map of the world, by canceling the status of a national holiday - the Liberation Day of Bulgaria from the Ottoman yoke, which is celebrated on March 3.

"The attempt to introduce amendments to the constitution, to change the national holiday, is connected with the current situation, with the attempt to abolish Russia and everything related to it. Bulgaria is now trying to follow the fashion of the modern West. I think that what is happening is a custom enthusiasm, an attempt to reformat the Bulgarian society, to help it to forget its history and at the same time to divert them from discussing the current problems, the problems related to building the future", says Mitrofanova.

Mitrofanova told TASS that in the 1990s, both Russia and other countries from the former socialist camp tried to revise their own history. However, according to her, the Russo-Turkish war has a special place in the history of both Russia and Bulgaria, which makes it possible to continue cooperation, regardless of the political situation.

In the interview with TASS, Mitrofanova also commented on the plans to dismantle the monument to the Soviet Army in Sofia.

Bulgarian politicians, who seek to destroy the monuments of Soviet soldiers, want to inflict mental trauma on Russia and rewrite history, Mitrofanova said in the interview with TASS.

The Russian ambassador noted that this monument expresses "the gratitude of the Bulgarian people to the Russian soldiers who freed Europe from fascism" and that the attempts to dismantle it speak of a desire to rewrite history.

"If we talk about the political dimension of this issue, then this is an act that represents the rewriting of history. The desire to remove from history everything related to Russia and the Soviet Union, and also to inflict serious mental trauma on us."

In addition to political issues, Mitrofanova also commented on issues related to the economy.

In connection with the work of the Lukoil company, the Russian ambassador said that she sees the desire of politicians to expel Russia from the spheres of mutual interests. "This includes the question of the future work of Lukoil in the country, although this topic is very complicated. (. . .) The share of Lukoil in the diesel market in Bulgaria is over 70%, the plant employs about 1,500 people, even more Bulgarians work in related companies. This ('Lukoil Neftohim Burgas') is the most modern effective structure-determining enterprise in Bulgaria, now it is experiencing certain difficulties. It is difficult for me to judge the true intentions of the Bulgarian authorities, but it is clear that they are trying in every possible way to make its work difficult, although this is short-sighted," said Mitrofanova.

The history of Bulgarian gasoline began in 1963. Mitrofanova noted that the culmination of this process in 1999 was the enterprise "Lukoil Neftohim Burgas", which produces dozens of types of fuels, petrochemical and polymer products. Lukoil's investments in the Bulgarian economy since 1999 amount to 4.5 billion dollars. This is the largest plant not only in Bulgaria, but also in the Balkans.

According to Mitrofanova, there are currently no prospects for the resumption of full-fledged tourist exchange between Russia and Bulgaria.

"On the Russian side, there are no problems with visas - we issue them according to the usual procedure provided for by our legislation. The Bulgarian colleagues have also not officially introduced any restrictions. Another issue is that due to logistical difficulties, the mutual tourist flow was drastically reduced. Last year with for the purpose of recreation, about 90 thousand people have arrived in Bulgaria, and in the times before the coronavirus, the number of these people was about 500 thousand. I think it is impossible to have a mass flow of tourists without direct flights. However, we live in an era of uncertainty and rapid change of events, and because of this it is difficult to make predictions. We understand that Bulgaria is a member of the EU and NATO and that it will adhere to the position of these political associations. Globally, the development of the geopolitical situation will be decisive," concluded Mitrofanova.

Bulgaria appears in the list of "hostile" countries of Russia.

After the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia defined a total of 50 countries as "hostile" - all countries of the European Union, Great Britain, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, North Macedonia, Ukraine and others. This happened after they imposed or joined sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, notes Radio Free Europe.

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