Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov has denied accusations that Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has met with Interpol-sought Russian mafia thug Konstantin Tsiganov.

"No meetings have been held between the Prime Minister and the said person. As regards photos taken during football matches, I have to admit that the Interior Ministry does not exercise control over all players on the field or all fans who have come to see the sports event," Tsvetanov said in Parliament on Friday, responding to a question of socialist MP Anton Kutev about the Prime Minister's relations to the criminal.

The question was triggered by a publication in the controversial, anti-government Galeria weekly, released in the beginning of 2012, featuring a photo of Borisov playing football with the Russian Mafioso.

The article informed that the match had taken place on August 27, 2008, when Boyko Borisov was mayor of Sofia.

Tsiganov is said to be the head of the Russian crime group Uralmash and has been wanted by the Russian authorities since 2003 and by the Interpol since 2006.

He was granted Bulgarian citizenship in 2001.

Ten years later, he was expelled from Bulgaria and was banned from re-entering the country for 10 years.

According to Tsvetanov, the Russian Embassy in Sofia had taken steps to implement the expulsion on March 17, 2011.

"Is it true that there was such a football match and is there any connection between the Prime Minister and this person? Given the fact that the person had been expelled from the country and the fact that there have been signals about contacts between him and the Prime Minister, I suppose that the Interior Ministry made the effort to look into the matter," Kutev stated.

Tsvetanov denied claims that any meetings between Tsiganov and Borisov had taken place but took care to remind that the key figure in "the Killers" crime group, Petar Stoyanov-Sumista had been an advisor to the parliamentary group of the left-wing Coalition for Bulgaria.

"As regards relations between organized crime and political parties, I believe that you have quite some experience and some good practices," Tsvetanov sneered.

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