Bulgarian Caretaker PM Denies Being Military Spy

Bulgaria's caretaker Prime Minister, Marin Raykov, has firmly rejected claims he had been a secret collaborator of the Defense Ministry's intelligence unit, known as RUMNO.

"There is no way I have been a spy. I have been Ambassador twice and Deputy Minister twice. The Files Commission, investigating Communist era records, has done 6 background checks on me. This is the answer," Raykov told the Bulgarian Pressa (Press) daily, stressing such allegations have surpassed all boundaries.

After Raykov was appointed caretaker PM, various sources from the secret services came forward with claims he has been military spy after 1990 and for this reason his name as agent of the former Communist State security never emerged during the Files Commission's checks.

His alleged leading officer, Georgi Yurukov, also stated Raykov has not been in any way associated with RUMNO.

The same claim was made Wednesday by popular Bulgarian journalist and former Ambassador to Croatia, Velizar Enchev, who had also worked for 10 years (1986 – 1996) as an officer of the National Intelligence Agency.

"Everyone in the Balkans Department of the Foreign Ministry before and after the fall of the Communist regime knew Raykov worked for RUMNO," Enchev says.

According to him, the caretaker PM's intelligence record has been concealed by former PM, Ivan Kostov.

Enchev further accused Raykov of defending the so-called revival process at a UNESCO sitting in Paris in 1988, one year before the fall of the Communist regime. The regime masterminded the revival process which was a campaign for forcefully changing the names of Bulgarian Muslims with Christian ones.

Enchev also informed that as Ambassador of Bulgaria to France Raykov had violated the diplomats work code by organizing meetings in the French Parliament for President, Rosen Plevneliev, at the time he was still running for office, while denying the same favor to other presidential candidates.

Enchev insist he has witnesses that would back everything he had reported.

In 2009, the journalist and diplomat published his book "I Was a Spy," a sort of self-confession where he also voiced outrage from the fact his work for the Bulgarian intelligence on the Balkans is being considered the same as the work of agents of the Communist State Security, DS.

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