site.btaMRF Floor Leader Calls on Prosecution Service, National Security Agency to Ascertain Ownership of Property in Possession of Russia

Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Floor Leader Delyan Peevski Tuesday submitted an alert to the prosecution service and the State Agency for National Security (SANS) about a number of properties, including the Russian Church in Sofia, which, he alleged, are unlawfully in possession of the Russian Federation, as well as "land and buildings for which there is no evidence that they have the status of diplomatic premises". Peevski has called on the authorities to urgently ascertain the ownership of these properties following his alert, the MRF press centre said. 

He cited media publications that shed light on procedures the Russian Federation had allegedly used to take possession of property or land in Bulgaria. The MRF Floor Leader called on the prosecution service and SANS to get familiar with an investigation by journalist Genka Shikerova of Radio Free Europe, which raises reasonable concerns that Russia owns thousands of square metres of land in Bulgaria, including sites that are important to Bulgaria's national security.

One of the cases cited concerns more than 11,000 sq m of the Iskar Dam sanitary protection zone (supplying water to Sofia), which has been fenced off and claimed by the Russian Federation despite the alleged absence of title deeds.

The MRF Floor Leader pointed out that any delay or indecisiveness on the part of the Bulgarian authorities in resolving these issues violates the public interest and creates prerequisites for the advancement of Russian interests, which could impact Bulgaria's national interests and sovereignty.

"In order to have a lasting solution to this problem, we, as legislators, will use all parliamentary means, and together with our colleagues from GERB-UDF and CC-DB, who have already expressed their willingness for legislative changes, will submit our proposals to the National Assembly," Peevski said in his alert.

Peevski spoke following the reopening of the Russian Church in Sofia on November 10. The Church was reopened with a prayer service for health and prosperity offered by the new dean of the metochion, appointed by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, and the three Bulgarian clerics, appointed by Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyte. Attending was Russian Ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova, who said that the closure of the Russian Church was a political act where "someone had to show something to someone". In response, Peevski said that Mitrofanova’s behaviour was arrogant and insolent.