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An international movement of Russophiles will be established on March 14 in Moscow, and the initiative has been headed for many years by Nikolay Malinov, head of the Bulgarian National Movement "Russophiles".
The initiative is supported by the Russian Foreign Ministry and Minister Sergey Lavrov will attend the event "with the participation of representatives from over 40 countries". There will be the famous action actor Steven Segal, who has been living in Russia for years and is a special representative of its foreign ministry for humanitarian relations with the USA and Japan. At the establishment will be Konstantin Malofeev, chairman of the "Tsargrad" public association, also called an "Orthodox oligarch", active in the Balkans, accused of being involved in a coup attempt in Montenegro and sanctioned by the West.
Malinov was accused in Bulgaria of espionage for Russia in early September 2019 and sanctioned by the US a month ago for bribing a judge, who allowed him to travel abroad and receive a Russian decoration personally from President Vladimir Putin. The judge in question is Andon Mitalov, who was also sanctioned by the US for participating in corrupt activities. The "National Movement Russophiles" and "Russophiles for the Revival of the Fatherland" were also sanctioned by the US in February for being directly or indirectly controlled by Malinov.
Malinov now claims that at his meeting with Putin on November 4, 2019, he shared with the president his idea for an International Movement of Russophiles and he supported it.
On February 15, he said he was going to Moscow for a meeting with Lavrov to talk "with friends" and discuss what action to take. It is not known whether he returned to Bulgaria after that, since on February 27 he participated in a show on the state television channel "Pervyi Kanal", and on March 6 he published a photo of him hugging Malofeev on his channel in Telegram.
It is one of Malofeev's publications that gives more details about the establishment of an international of Russophiles. The goal was to bring together "true patriots" from different countries, representing different religions and political views, united by their love for Russia and its culture and striving for a multipolar world based on the traditions of the peoples.
Malinov said on Russian television that the organization would structure the activity especially to collect, through the European Citizens' Initiative in at least 7 countries of the EU, one million signatures to lift EU sanctions against Russia and to hold events related to history and the anti-fascist struggle.
"Today, in the context of the anti-Russian sanctions pressure and the Russophobic propaganda campaign of the West, attempts to 'cancel' Russia and Russian culture, the number of those who do not hide their sympathies for our country is growing in the world. For many of them, Russia is becoming a real 'lifesaving boat', the center of an international movement for a just world order, based on multipolarity and respect for the traditional values of countries and peoples. A world where children have a father and a mother, not 'parents No. 1 and No. 2', where marriage is the union of a man and a woman, and faith in God and ethno-cultural identity are not something to be shamefully hidden," note the organizers in the draft manifesto.
The portal "Русский мир" claims that during the discussion of the idea with Lavrov at the Foreign Ministry in Moscow, Russia's first diplomat supported it and wished the initiators a firm spirit and courage to realize it.
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the ministry, confirmed on March 9 that Lavrov will participate in the founding congress of the International Movement of Russophiles. According to her words, quoted by TASS, Russian state, political and public figures, representatives of science, culture and foreign delegates from several dozen countries will be present. "Their idea (of foreign delegates - note TASS), which inspired such an achievement, is to respect, preserve and spread Russian culture, traditions, spirituality," stressed the media. "The international movement of Russophiles is called to unite the friends of our country."
"Tsargrad" wrote particularly enthusiastically about Malinov, who he was called "the most Russian of the Bulgarians". A recent publication states that he is the originator of the international movement and the "engine of the current forum".
Malinov claimed to the publication that the idea existed in his movement since 2003, but has been discussed with politicians and public figures in Russia since 2018.
On February 27, Malinov took part in the program "The Big Game" on the state-run Russian "Pervy Kanal", in which he said that those who declare Russia an aggressor are "barbarians, Russophobes and modern fascists". He confirmed that the march "For a neutral Bulgaria" was actually in support of Russia, but the authorities in Sofia did not allow it, although the slogans made it clear what the purpose of the event was.
While Malinov was speaking, footage from Bulgaria was broadcast on huge screens showing people trampling the flag of the European Union and posing with "Putin is our president" t-shirts.
At the start of his feature, the camera showed a large map of "Decolonizing Europe" where everything east of the EU borders was simply Russia (absorbing Ukraine, the Baltic republics, and Moldova). Europe has broken up into numerous states, with Bulgaria written as "Land of Svyatoslav Igorevich", Romania with "Gypsy Empire", and all the former southern republics plus Albania and Kosovo as "Kingdom of Serbia".
The map is actually an attempt from 2022 to answer similar amateur maps with what states the Russian Federation will supposedly break into in the future. It became famous on the Telegram channel "Ordinary Tsarism" with the comment "Europe is a prison for the peoples. For millennia, the European imperialists have suppressed independent identities, so to speak. They have simulated them, kept them unfree. The moment has come to say decisively 'No!'".
Nikolay Mladenov did not comment on what was shown in the television show.
A curious point is that Svyatoslav is a prince of Kievan Rus and is actually a Viking. His parents were Ingvar (later called Igor I) and Helga (Olga), who ruled on Svyatoslav's behalf for nearly a quarter of a century until he grew up. Her son attacked Bulgaria in 968-967 and reached the capital Veliki Preslav, where Tsar Peter, the longest-reigning Bulgarian ruler in history, died from a stroke. Svyatoslav's wars against the Bulgarian state, and then against Byzantium, ended with his defeat, Thrace, Eastern Moesia and the Bulgarian lands beyond the Danube came under the empire's control, and Bulgaria continued to exist for about 40 years in the so-called Western Bulgarian lands, after which it finally disappeared until 1185.
His son Vladimir I (Valdemar) baptized Kievan Rus in 988.
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