site.bta343 Russians Applying for Bulgarian Citizenship Found to Have Used Fake Documents

In three or four years, there were 343 files of candidates from the Russian Federation, who were subsequently found to have used false documents, said Atanas Atanassov, chair of the ad hoc committee investigating the activities of Gleb Myshin. He was speaking after a meeting of the committee on the acquisition of Bulgarian citizenship by Russian citizens. 

Myshin, who is presumably a Ukrainian-born Russian, reportedly arranged for Russians to obtain Bulgarian citizenship through a suspected document fraud. 

Imagine the channel that has been opened here for obtaining Bulgarian citizenship from a country that has declared Bulgaria hostile, Atanassov said. In his words, the most important thing is to summarize the need for legislative changes in order to improve the entire mechanism of work. According to him, the work of the Executive Agency for Bulgarians Abroad should be streamlined as it issues certificates of Bulgarian origin to foreigners. Atanassov voiced doubt how the agency can establish that. 

Atanassov believes that the form and method of operation of the Bulgarian Citizenship Directorate at the Justice Ministry should be assessed.

On Tuesday at a closed meeting of the committee, the Director of the Migration Directorate at the State Agency for National Security (SANS) Tsvetan Tsvetanov was heard. SANS chairman Plamen Tonchev was supposed to attend the hearing, but did not show up. Asked whether during the hearing it became clear where the problem with the fake documents was, Atanassov said that SANS have forgotten that they are a working service. “How can the National Assembly receive a signal about the activities of Myshin, while SANS has not detected it,” he asked. 

Asked whether he would call Plamen Tonchev to the next meeting of the committee, Atanasov said there was no need. He added that on Tuesday Tonchev had to come to hear facts that the commission found. The disregard for the National Assembly at the end of its existence is already present everywhere, Atanassov believes.  

The ad hoc committee into the activities of Gleb Myshin, related to data on possible wrongful granting of Bulgarian citizenship, was established by Parliament in mid-February. The Commission examines facts and circumstances regarding the granting of Bulgarian citizenship to foreign citizens, as well as the work of the institutions under the procedure. Atanas Atanassov announced that there will be another meeting at which they will present to the committee a draft report on the overall work and it will be voted.