"What we should tell the Americans is not to send us just 14, but 1400 tanks... something that will bring much calm to the Bulgarian... to municipalities, to cities, to the nation".

Former Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy standing up for US plans to deploy heavy equipment to Eastern European NATO allies. The announcement of the move to station troops triggered much

In his Friday interview with private national bTV station he also said:

"We have wonderful premarital agreements with NATO - first the agreement under which we entered NATO in 2004, after that the North Atlantic Treat, after that we signed with the US in 2003... on Bulgarian-US military facilities which are in Novo Selo and Bezmer."

"If Russian citizens who purchased properties at the Black Sea say they feel threatened, President [Vladimir] Putin, who is unpredictable, will say: "I am going to defend my compatriots in St Vlas" and this is where the scary part begins."

St Vlas is a Black Sea resort popular with Russians and also with Westerners.