The governments of Bulgaria and Russia are currently tangled in complex diplomatic negotiations over the immunity status of the buildings of the Bulgarian Industrial Center in Moscow.

This was announced Thursday afternoon by Bulgaria’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Marin Raykov, just several hours after special forces of the Russian police raided the Center in order to search the apartment of Nikolay Nikolov, the representative of the Bulgarian firm Millenium 2001, which is suspected of producing and distributing pirate CDs outside of Moscow.

Later in the day Bulgarian businessman Konstantin Kostov, also representative of Millenium 2001, was arrested in Moscow.

Bulgaria claims that the administrative and residential building of the Bulgarian Industrial Center, which is the country’s largest real estate property abroad, enjoy diplomatic immunity status under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

Raykov said that before carrying out the surprise raid at the Center, the Russian side had stated it was “very hard to recognize the diplomatic immunity status” of the buildings.

In his words, the Russian special forces of the Economic Security Department entered the Center with machine guns. They were temporarily stopped by Malina Bozhinova, the Director of the Center who does have diplomatic status herself.

In an exclusive interview for Novinite.com, a senior representative of the Russian police said the security officers behaved did not infringe in any way on the actual offices of the Industrial Center.

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.

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.

Deputy Foreign Minister Raykov explained Bulgaria was basing its claims for the diplomatic immunity of the buildings on an 1974 agreement between the People’s Republic of Bulgaria and the USSR.

At the order of PM Borisov, Raykov has instructed the Bulgarian Ambassador in Moscow to let the OMON police forces into the premises of the Center but only accompanied by representatives of the Embassy.

"This is the only way for us to guarantee the integrity of our claims - that the Center continues to have a diplomatic status, and that it can be entered only with the permission and accompanying of the Bulgarian Embassy staff," the Deputy Minister explained.

The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry and the Embassy in Moscow have made it clear to the Russian side they protested the invasion of the Industrial Center buildings by the Russian police.

The case is especially complicated by the fact that at the end of May 2009, right before the end of his term in office, the former Minister of Economy, Petar Dimitrov, issued an order renouncing the diplomatic functions of the buildings of the Bulgarian Industrial Center in Moscow, and thus changing its status.

Raykov also announced that the Director of the Center Bozhinova and the activities of the institution were currently under investigation over alleged violations.

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