Bulgaria PM Accuses Predecessor of Concealing 9 Classified Files

Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, voiced Wednesday further accusations about his predecessor, Sergey Stanishev, concealing nine more State Security classified files.

Borisov spoke after a meeting of the Council of Ministers, saying the disappearance of the National Agency for State Security (DANS) documents was not a matter of carelessness, but an act with a definite purpose.

A potential map of the Bulgarian energy system, information about people linked to contraband channels, about a public tender for the delivery of “special” production, and about signals from the Pleven Regional Prosecutors Office, are among the concealed classified documents mentioned by Borisov, who said the disappearance of precisely those files has not been a coincidence.

“I truly understand Stanishev and I feel sorry for him. The people he believed in are the ones trying to decapitate him,” the PM is quoted as saying.

Borisov pointed out the scandals surrounding classified information have the goal to discredit and demobilize DANS employees and divert public attention from the real issues the Agency is facing.

Borisov declined to comment on Stanishev's accusations the PM had surrounded himself with a circle of friends known as the “Tom Cats” and said he spoke with facts not about “cats and mice.”

Earlier Wednesday, Stanishev mentioned the above said circle, but refused to state any names and invited reporters to investigate who are the people inside it and what public tenders in Sofia they have won during Borisov's term as Mayor. The former PM and leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) defined Borisov as a worse dictator than communist leader Todor Zhivkov and accused him of ruling the country through bad police scenarios and the throwing of fake bombs in public space.

On his part Borisov apologized to the employee responsible for safeguarding the classified information as a person who had fulfilled his duties and had notified DANS for the documents' disappearance.

“Just that DANS delayed notifying me,” Borisov said.

The PM informed he would meet DANS employees as early as Monday to thank them for their work and calm them down, adding the new DANS Director, Tsvetelin Yovchev, had done a good, honest job at the Agency, but had not been a top ranking employee during the term of the “Stanishev” cabinet, thus he is not in any danger of being fired.

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