The European Parliament warned of Russian interference in Bulgaria’s elections on June 9

The European Parliament (EP) expresses concern over the frequent attempts of Russian interference in the elections in Bulgaria on June 9. This is written in a resolution on Russian interference in the European Union, which will be voted on today at the last plenary session of the EP in Strasbourg.

MEPs are concerned about the existence in our country of a network of disinformation agents controlled by Russia. They are also concerned because of the many properties of the Russian state in our country.

The European Parliament believes that the network of Russian disinformation agents is active in social networks, but also in the traditional media in our country, in academic circles and political parties.

During a debate in the EP on the use of Russian assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine, the MEP from GERB-SDS/EPP Alexander Yordanov insisted that the Kamchia complex, which is owned by the Moscow government, be confiscated.

“In Bulgaria, on the coast of the beautiful Black Sea, that is, on the European border, there is a territory of nearly 470,000 square meters, which is entirely owned by the Moscow city hall. It is bigger than the Vatican. The Russian capital has acquired this property nearly 20 years ago and has gradually built up a center for advancing its interests in Europe”Yordanov told the MEPs.

He recalled the words of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who defined this Russian base as an “ideal example” of Russian soft power, which is the basis of the “Russian World” concept. “This is the concept that today is Russia’s argument for aggression against Ukraine,” Alexander Yordanov said.

He indicated to Mediapool that it is the job of the Bulgarian government to confiscate the “Kamchia” complex without clarifying how this should be done. The problem is that the Bulgarian parliament has not yet adopted legislative changes on how to confiscate Russian properties of people from Putin’s entourage.

“We should note that in the resolution we are adopting, Bulgaria is also mentioned for having high levels of Russian assets. There are doubts about interference in the electoral process, about interference in various influential circles such as non-governmental organizations, political analysts, media and so on.”said Eva Meidel, MEP from GERB/ENP, quoted by BNT.

There have been around 750 attempts at external interference in the work of the EP over the last year, said MEP Petar Vitanov from the BSP/S&D. “We call on the commission to limit and change the methodology of social media content so that it is not influenced by interactions and misinformation does not reach us”he added.

The MEPs propose to have a special European structure or commissioner to monitor foreign interference in the countries of the community and take concrete measures.