site.btaPresident Radev: Bulgaria Had Adequate Reaction to Russian Statement on Rescue of Bulgarian Jews

Sofia, November 4 (BTA) - Bulgaria had an adequate reaction to the Russian statement that the Red Army rescued Bulgarian Jews during the Second World War, President Rumen Radev said in reply to a journalist's question on Saturday. "According to me, this is either a serious lack of knowledge of history, or a provocation attempt. I cannot guess, but Bulgaria had an adequate reaction," he commented.

On Friday, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry reacted to a statement by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova, who said at a briefing on Thursday that "during World War II our soldiers prevented the deportation of Jews from Bulgaria and thus saved some 50,000 people from unavoidable death." The remarks were prompted by the appearance on October 31 of a graffito on the Soviet Army Monument in Sofia reading "100 Years of Zionist Occupation". The inscription most probably referred to the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917, by which the British Government for the first time announced support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. Zakharova said that "the desecrators [of the monument] do not have the slightest idea of their own history".

Taking another question, Radev said that the resources for defence in the 2018 draft national budget show the Government's attention to this sector, but after so many years of neglect this cannot solve the Army's problems.