Former Bulgarian minister says no progress in decade of Bulgarian arms industry sabotage, assassination attempt investigations

Sabotage and attempted assassinations have struck the Czech and Bulgarian arms industries again and again since 2011. Now former Bulgarian Ministry of Defense Official is alleging that local investigations have been “hindered.” And when it comes to the international activities of Russian GRU, such a cover up would not be hard to believe.

Alleged Russian spy activities in the form of sabotage—literally explosive sabotage—as well as at least one attempted assassination in Bulgaria have generally flown under the radar of international news sites for more than a decade.

And apparently, they have somewhat flown under the radar of Bulgarian prosecutors, who, according to Former Bulgarian Minister of Defense Boyko Noev, as cited by Radio Bulgaria, have failed to make arrests and who may have been “hindered” in said investigations.

The former minister claims that evidence has been destroyed, and that there are persons in Bulgaria that came to the aid of “Russian agents” who not only set of explosions at arms manufacturing sites, but also who attempted to poison Bulgarian arms magnate Emilian Gebrev not once, but twice. Moreover, a 2015 poisoning, which left Gebrev in a coma—from which he recovered—was believed to have seen the use of Novichok, the same nerve agent used to hit Sergei and Yulia Skripal in 2018.

That attempt was allegedly linked by the investigative website, Bellingcat, to Russian GRU agents, including GRU Colonel Anatoliy C., GRU agent Alexander M. , and a third officer, Denis V.

But in fact, Bulgaria appears to have been targeted first more than a decade ago, with Bellingcat having also pointed to Russia and the now infamous GRU unit 29155 as being behind an explosion at the EMKO weapons warehouse near Lovnidol, 150 kilometers east of Sofia, in 2011.

This was followed by still more alleged sabotage attempts in Bulgaria, but not only, with ammunition depots going up also in Vrbetice in the Czech Republic on Oct. 16, 2014 and then also on Dec. 3, 2014, with the first explosion leaving two person dead. And again agents from GRU Unit 29155 were allegedly in the vicinity.

Which means that it no surprise that Gebrev, as both a key player in the Bulgarian arms industry and a victim of direct physical attack, has been outspoken. In fact, Gebrev has long warned of “active attempts” by Russia to sabotage the Bulgarian arms industry in light of the war in Ukraine, and even if his worries were limited to Bulgaria, he has hardly been crying wolf.  Suspicious attacks include an explosion at the EMKO ammunition warehouse outside of Karnobat in 2022 and a large fire at the same location in 2023.

For his part, Gebrev has blamed the failure of Bulgarian prosecutors to bring anyone to justice on Russia--as not surprisingly Russia is not wont to extradite anybody, much less GRU agents. Yet Bulgaria’s Noev is implying something more and claiming that evidence gathered during ongoing investigations has been destroyed.

Which may also be true.

As when it comes to GRU, Central Europe and unit 29511, the intrigue never stops.

Photo: Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz (right) escorts Bulgarian Minister of Defense Boyko Noev (left) into the Pentagon on March 26, 2001. The two men will meet to discuss a range of regional security issues of interest to both nations. Photo courtesy of English: R. D. Ward, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.