Bulgaria Foreign Ministry Upset by Russia Police Raid on Its Property

Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry is “seriously worried” by the events related to the raid of Russian police forces OMON at the Bulgarian Industrial Center in Moscow early Monday morning.

This has been announced by the Foreign Ministry press center regarding the search of apartments at the residential building of the Center by 23 OMON officers.

The Foreign Ministry said it had instructed the Bulgarian Ambassador to Moscow to intervene in the case, and reminded that the Bulgarian Industrial Center in Moscow enjoyed diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Thus, even though the Russian police had a search warrant by a prosecutor, it is supposed to enter the Bulgarian diplomatic property only with the permission of the Bulgarian Ambassador.

According to the BGNES agency, which cites diplomatic sources from the Bulgarian Embassy, the police raid has targeted Nikolay Nikolov – a representative of the Millenium 201 real-estate company who is renting out an apartment at the Center.

The Foreign Ministry has made it clear it works together with the Ministry of Economy is order to resolve the double existing problems at the Center.

The Bulgarian Industrial Center in Moscow is Bulgaria’s largest diplomatic piece of property abroad. During the term of the Stanishev government it became the focus of a scandal as the former Economy Minister Petar Dimitrov moved to strip the Center of its diplomatic status, allegedly in order to favor a fellow member of the Socialist Party.

It is unclear whether Thursday’s police search of the BIC in Miscow is related at all to the issues that have existed with the BIC in the past.

The administrative building of the BIC in Moscow is valued at over EUR 160 M at market prices, and the residential building – at over EUR 64 M.