Russia Police: We Did Not Infringe on Bulgaria Diplomatic Premises

A representative of Russia’s Interior Ministry said exclusively for Novinite.com the Russian police had not infringed on Bulgarian diplomatic premises during Thursday’s police raid on the Bulgarian Industrial Center in Moscow.

Albert Istomin, Deputy Head of the Press Center of the Economic Security Department, told Novinite.com that the Russian police had conducted a special operation searching the offices of a firm renting out residential space at the Bulgarian Industrial Center in Moscow.

According to Istomin, the firm in question is suspect of carrying out illegal business activities related to the production and distribution of pirate audio-visual items.

“The special operation did not infringe on the Bulgarian Industrial Center which has diplomatic immunity. Only space rented out by the suspected company at the residential building has been searched,” Istomin said.

He commented he had no explanation on why the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry and the Bulgarian Embassy had protested against the operation as it did not affect in any way the actual offices of the Bulgarian Industrial Center, which enjoys a status of diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations.

Istomin has denied the reports of the staff of the Bulgarian Industrial Center that the special police officers who carried out the search behaved in a rude way. “Our officers have behaved absolutely properly towards the people on the spot and the Bulgarian diplomatic premises,” he said.

The representative of the Economic Security Department of the Russian Interior Ministry has declined to reveal the suspected scope of the crime of the searched Bulgarian company saying the investigation did not allow him to disclose such details.

Earlier the Bulgarian Economy Ministry, which is the owner of the Bulgarian Industrial Center in Moscow, said the police raid had targeted the Bulgarian firm Millenium 2001 over the production and distribution of pirate CDs. Millenium 2001 has a CD-production facility at Zelenograd, 30 km away from Moscow.

The Russian policemen searched the apartment rented by the firms representative Nikolay Nikolov at the residential building of the Bulgarian Industrial Center. The Ministry has denied any connection with the Millenium 2001 firm other than the leasing of residential apartments to its representative. Nikolov has not been arrested.