Bulgarian special services investigate lorry explosion on Crimean bridge

The Bulgarian counterintelligence service DANS (State Agency for National Security) in Sofia is investigating Russian allegations that the lorry blown up on the Crimean bridge came from that country. The previous Sunday, the head of the Russian investigative committee, Alexander Bastrykin, announced at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the route of the lorry had started in Bulgaria and then passed through Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia and the Krasnodar region. The Bulgarian investigation began immediately after the Kremlin published this information on the instructions of acting Prime Minister Galab Donev. The Bulgarian public prosecutor's office has also been informed.

However, European Commission spokesman Peter Stano said Bastrykin's statements were unreliable. "We have no way of knowing what happened on the bridge on Saturday, what led to the explosion and what caused it. We know the credibility of many so-called 'investigations' in Russia. I would not give the slightest credence to their statements," he said, quoted by Bulgarian media. Stano recalled that Crimea is part of Ukraine and that the Kerch Bridge is an illegal facility.

Boyko Borisov, former prime minister and leader of the conservative GERB party, commented that the term "Bulgarian trail" was in bad taste. He explained that the explosives had never been loaded in Bulgaria, as there was no way of getting them across the border. The leader of the "We Continue Change" party and former Prime Minister Kiril Petkov called on the interim government to reject the Kremlin's insinuations of Bulgarian involvement in the sabotage of the Crimean Bridge.

Source: Nikolov, EURACTIV