site.btaRussophiles National Movement Chairman Malinov, Who Has Been Charged with Espionage, Speaks at Movement's National Gathering

106 POLITICS-SPY SCANDAL-RUSSOPHILES GATHERING

Russophiles National Movement Chairman Malinov, Who
Has Been Charged with Espionage,
Speaks at Movement's National Gathering

September 14 (BTA) - The Russophiles National Movement opened its 16th national gathering here on Saturday. The event is mottoed "Europe is Stronger with Russia" and is held several days after on September 10 the Movement's Chairman, Nikolai Malinov, was charged with espionage in a suspected plot to further Russia's interests in Bulgaria. Malinov is at large on a 50,000-leva bail.

Malinov allegedly placed himself at the service of two foreign organizations having their seats in the Russian Federation: the Double-Headed Eagle Society and the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies. Russian national Leonid Reshetnikov, who is linked with the two organizations, was barred from entering Bulgaria for ten years.

Addressing the gathering on Saturday, Malinov explained why he declined to support suggestions from members of the Movement for setting up a party and for moving the event to Sofia, arguing that "the future of the Bulgarian-Russian projects is more important". Malinov said that the Turk Stream gas pipeline project and the project for the Belene nuclear power plant are the result of efforts that took several years which should not be "annulled". On the grandstand of the gathering Malinov was flanked by National Assembly Deputy Chairman Emil Hristov, MPs from the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and from the ruling GERB party.

Earlier in the day, a sign-in campaign was opened in Malinov's support.

The participants carried many posters. One poster read "Russia poses no threat to Bulgaria, Russia is Bulgaria's liberator, friend and brother". Other participants sported stickers reading "I am a Russophile, arrest me".

Nearly 15,000 people attended the gathering. IG/ZH
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