site.btaPM Denkov: "Being Part of NATO, Bulgaria Does Not Risk Being Attacked by Russia"

"People should not be scared. Bulgaria does face a risk because we are part of NATO, and Russia will not venture to attack a NATO member country," Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov told journalists here on Monday.

Back home from a one-day official visit to Greece, the MP was asked for reaction to a statement by Russian State Duma Deputy Chairman Pyotr Tolstoy who, speaking on Russia-24 television, said on Friday: "In Bulgaria, our citizens occupy the whole coast. They will start showing everything. There is no problem there. They are not the big powers with which it makes sense to play games."

"This is not the first time that Pyotr Tolstoy has provoked Bulgaria. We would have probably ignored these provocations if he were not a legislator. He acts within the framework of institutional representation and, making these statements, he is crossing lines which are unacceptable. I will talk to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I believe that a clear sign must be given that these statements are unacceptable. [Russian] Ambassador [in Sofia Eleonora] Mitrofanova must get the message. I don't think she should be declared persona non grata on account of any such statement. After all, the statement is not hers," the Bulgarian head of government commented.

He was apparently referring to a publication by the Atlantic Council of Bulgaria, which quoted Tolstoy as identifying Bulgaria and Romania as possible targets of Russian military aggression after finishing with Ukraine. The NGO listed six steps for safeguarding Bulgaria from the Russian "hybrid aggression", including declaring Mitrofanova persona non grata as early as on July 24.

"Bulgaria is not only a target of Russia's hybrid war but is also a State over which the Kremlin wants to establish control. Putin will not be too nice about the means to that end. As far as he is concerned, everything is a matter of possibilities and if they are in place, Bulgaria, too, may become object of Russian military aggression," the Atlantic Council said.

"We must not yield to provocations," Denkov urged. In his opinion, a large part of such statements are made for domestic use with the Russian audience.

The Prime Minister said further that there is an option to increase substantially the capacity for Ukrainian grain transit over Bulgaria's railway system and this subject was on his agenda earlier in the day with his Greek counterpart Mitsotakis in Athens.