“I’m in Los Angeles, I just arrived. There are several events related to the Navalny documentary that we made. In a few days we will know if he will be nominated for an Oscar. There are countries where it is okay to say that you are. For example, the ‘America”.
This was stated by journalist Hristo Grozev, who was declared wanted by Russia, in the “On Focus” program on “Nova”.
“I’m not scared because I’ve been used to this lifestyle, at least since 2015. when attempts to sabotage our work are started by the Russian government, but not only, for example by Belarus,” Grozev said.
In Austria Grozev received state protection.
“In Bulgaria, a parliamentary force has proposed that I be extradited to Russia. This is terrible,” commented the journalist.
However, he received protection from Bulgaria.
“For several days it was not clear whether the country was ready to take a confrontational position with Russia. But representatives of law enforcement agencies and special services contacted me, I expect to see after receiving a response from Russia. I really saw a serious attempt by our special services to coordinate my safety with other services around the world. At this stage I am grateful to the country,” Grozev said.
He said he cannot claim that there are Russian agents in the Bulgarian parliament. “In the extra-parliamentary political forces – certainly, there are many among the Bulgarian economic elite as well. There are many Russians present on the territory of Bulgaria who are in close contact with their social services. I hope that the Bulgarian special services and counterintelligence will have a keep an eye on that,” the reporter said.
“When we investigated an operation of the GRU a year ago, concerning the sabotage of the investigation of the Boeing shot down in Ukraine in 2014, there were also Bulgarian telephone numbers in the telephone conversations of the general who was involved in the sabotage of the investigation. We have a hypothesis about some of these contacts, maybe in the coming days we will publish an investigation,” Grozev said.
The Bulgarian Interior Ministry is involved in the case of Hristo Grozev regarding the organization of his eventual safety if he decides to return to our country. This became clear a few days ago in the words of acting minister Ivan Demerdzhiev in response to a question from DPS deputy Stanislav Anastasov.
The Interior Ministry cannot provide information about journalist Hristov Grozev, as the case is being processed by services subordinate to the prime minister, Demerdzhiev said at the time.
Grozev has been speaking remotely with a committee of the National Assembly, as he is in a foreign country. Grozev has not resided permanently in Bulgaria for years, and after the notice sought by the Russian Federation, he confirmed that he did not trust the Bulgarian services and did not want to return to the country with large numbers of Russian agents operating with impunity. Yesterday he also connected the “action” on the Russian side with the ongoing investigation, which he is conducting and which also concerns explosions in European arms factories, including in our country, organized by the Russian services.
The Russian ambassador to our country Eleonora Mitrofanova advised the Interior Ministry to inquire about what Hristo Grozev was wanted for by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. There is no centralized information on the case and the Russian ambassador to our country no longer has any information on why and how exactly the Bulgarian journalist is wanted by the Russian authorities.
