DISINFO: Bulgaria followed Czech example in accusing Russia of arms blasts
SUMMARY
It is peculiar that the Bulgarian government has discovered with such delay that Russia is responsible for a series of arms depot blasts in 2011. This follows a similar pattern to what happened in Czechia where the authorities discovered that Russia is implicated in similar arms depot blasts in 2014.
RESPONSE
This story is trying to question the findings of Bulgarian authorities during their investigation on the possible involvement of six Russians in four explosions at arms depots from 2011 to 2020. The arms stores were holding munitions destined for export to Ukraine and Georgia, the prosecution team said.
Prosecutors' spokeswoman Siyka Mileva said investigators could reasonably assume there were links between the blasts and munitions depot explosions in Czechia in 2014. They also believe there may be connections with the attempted poisoning of Bulgarian arms trader Emilian Gebrev in 2015.
"The collected evidence points so far, with a great degree of credibility, to the conclusion that the aim of the actions of the Russian citizens was to stop the supplies [...] to Georgia and Ukraine," Mileva said. "Evidence is being collected on the complicity of these six Russian citizens."
Mileva said the team of prosecutors was talking to Czech counterparts to investigate possible connections. The 2014 explosions in Czechia were at depots that stored munitions Gebrev owned.
Prosecutors claim the blast at Gebrev's company EMCO in 2011, two explosions at state arms company VMZ in 2015 and a fourth at private arms firm Arsenal in 2020 all had no obvious technical cause. All were triggered remotely and followed the outbreak of fires apparently timed to allow workers to leave the area and avoid casualties.
As for the arms depot blasts in Czechia, Czech intelligence services and police had collected “clear evidence” that connected two Russian secret service agents to the explosions. Czech authorities were acting on the “reasonable suspicion” that GRU was indeed involved in the explosions. The fictitious names of the two men, Ruslan Boširov (real name Anatoliy Chepiga) and Alexandr Petrov (real name Alexander Mishkin), coincided exactly with the names of two people wanted in the UK in connection to the 2018 poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter. The two travelled from Moscow to Prague a few days before the explosion using the same GRU-issued passports they would later use to travel to the UK in 2018. Prior to arriving in Czechia, they had booked a business appointment at the ammunition warehouse in Vrbětice using untraceable email addresses and a different set of GRU-issued passports. Once there, the two were issued a permit authorising them to enter Vrbětice between 13 and 17 October 2014.
Notably, during that same period, warehouse workers in Vrbětice were loading weapons purchased by a Bulgarian arms dealer who was supplying arms to Ukraine’s armed forces, which at the time were engaged with separatist forces in Eastern Ukraine supported by Russia. Those same weapons were destroyed in the explosions.
The findings of Czech authorities have been verified by an independent investigation conducted by Bellingcat, The Insider, Der Spiegel, and Respekt.cz.