Sofia’s Prosecutor’s Office ordered the country’s counter-intelligence agency to start investigations into the activities of an alleged pro-Russian paramilitary organisation following a tip that the organisation had committed crimes against the republic.
BNO Shipka and BND Shipka, two Bulgarian-registered NGOs, are under the authority’s spotlight due to their links to a so-called military union, Levski, and becoming more active in Bulgaria following the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The two groups are believed to offer specialised training to volunteers from Russian ex-special ops instructors, push anti-EU and anti-NATO propaganda, and push rhetoric of revolting against an illegitimate government, banning political parties, and sweeping racist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, according to Bellingcat research.
On top of openly announcing their intention to change the country’s constitutional order, they also organised a hunt for Syrian immigrants on Strandja mountain during the first refugee crisis and actively spread fake news during the pandemic.
“We protect the interests of our European and Euro-Atlantic partners. We cannot allow malicious Russian influence in Bulgaria,” said Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev commented, with his office promising that more information will be provided after the investigation is completed.
A person with the pseudonym Lt. Walter Kalashnikov is claiming to be the leader of the organisations. His real name is Doncho Rusev and according to public information, he was born in 1959 in the Burgas village of Bulgarovo, graduated from a sergeant’s school in Shumen, and until 1981 served as a sergeant in the tank division in Aytos.
In 1996, Rusev appeared as the owner of the Walter Catani security company which boasts that it “convened” in Bulgaria a meeting of leaders of a global security trust with the participation of former officers from Mossad, the KGB and the CIA, writes Top News.
Rusev also has quite a few other business ventures, such as a newspaper, a sex shop, investment advice, and cryptocurrencies, most of which have failed. He is also linked to a Facebook page called “Bulgaria and Russia – One History, One Language, One Faith, One People” used by the pro-Russian populist “Vazrazhdane” party to distribute campaign messages and advertising.
The prosecutor’s office is now claiming that it received a tip from a citizen, despite the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC) having provided the state prosecution in 2016 with publicly-available data pointing to the groups’ activities being directed against the republic and evidence of the creation of secret or paramilitary structures.
BNO Shipka and the union Vasil Levski were also cited in the request for the dismissal of Geshev which was submitted by then Justice Minister Nadezhda Yordanova in March 2022. The request explained how these paramilitary organisations were operating and being trained by Russian military instructors with no response from authorities.
On Friday, Geshev said the actions of BNO Shipka were worrying for Bulgarian national security and the interests of the European family.
(Krassen Nikolov | EURACTIV.bg)
Source: euractiv.com
