Bulgarian politicians have reacted sharply to claim of Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Slavonic alphabet had arrived in Russia from Macedonian land. Putin voiced this thesis while in a meeting with his Macedonian counterpart Gjorge Ivanov and his words were quoted on the Kremlin website, BNR reported.

In connection with the claim the Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva comments on Facebook that the alphabet was created based on the will and with the participation of the medieval Bulgarian state, so it is not accidental that in all Old-Bulgarian books the Bulgarian sovereign Boris I is referred to as Tsar Boris-Mikhail the Baptist.

Recalling that five years ago the Patriarch of Moscow and of all Russia Kiril said that book literacy in Russia had been delivered by the Bulgarians, Zaharieva adds that ‘’thanks to Bulgaria the Cyrillic is already on the banknotes of the single European currency’’.

Minister of Culture Boil Banov voiced surprise over the words of the Russian President and called for greater regard of history.