site.btaBust of Russian Statesman Nikolay Ignatyev in Varna Damaged

The bust of Russian statesman and diplomat Count Nikolay Ignatyev in Varna's City Garden was ripped from its pedestal on Tuesday night.

Atanas Mihov, Deputy Director of the Interior Ministry Regional Directorate in Varna, told reporters that footage from multiple security cameras around the monument have been seized by the police. Police have formed a team to inspect the site, pre-trial proceedings have been initiated in the case and the prosecuting magistracy has been alerted about it, Mihov said, expressing confidence that the perpetrator will be identified. 

Antonia Yovcheva, director of Varna Municipality's Culture and Spiritual Development Directorate, told the press that the monument will be restored as soon as possible.

This was not the first attack on the bust of Ignatyev in Varna. Some ten months ago, it was splashed over with white paint and the perpetrator was arrested.

Nikolay Ignatyev was an extremely controversial figure in Bulgarian history. He was a fierce opponent of the 19th century struggles for Bulgarian ecclesiastical independence and a separate and independent Bulgarian state, although he had ambitions to become the first Bulgarian knyaz (a noble title in Slavic lands, usually translated into English as prince or duke). At that time, the Russian press described him as "The Russian Knyaz of the Bulgarians". He initiated the signing of the Preliminary Treaty of San Stefano between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, concluded on March 3, 1878 (old style February 19), in disagreement with the Russian foreign ministry, as it was unenforceable, given the secret Reichstadt Agreement between Russia and Austria-Hungary, which had already been concluded in 1876.