SOFIA, December 27. /TASS/. Russian Ambassador to Bulgaria Eleonora Mitrofanova told TASS on Tuesday that she was invited to the Bulgarian foreign ministry for a conversation on current affairs.
"I was invited to visit the foreign ministry on Thursday to discuss current matters. I think the key topic will be Bulgarian language classes in Russia’s new regions, which has already been raised by the Bulgarian parliament. Another topic will probably be the one about Bulgarian journalist Christo Grozev, who was put on the wanted list by the Russian interior ministry," she said.
Bulgarian National Television, citing the official response of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry to the TV company's request, informed that the Russian ambassador was invited to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in connection with "the announcement by the Russian Interior Ministry that Bulgarian investigative journalist Christo Grozev had been put on the Russia's federal wanted list," and in connection with "the ban on studying the Bulgarian language" in a number of former Ukrainian regions.
Earlier, the political party Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria demanded the authorities respond to the Russian interior ministry’s decision to put the Bulgarian journalist working for Bellingcat (recognized as a foreign agency mass media outlet in Russia) on the wanted list. The party’s leader, Bulgaria’s former Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, posted the corresponding statement on his Facebook (outlawed in Russia as belonging to the Meta corporation, which was recognized as extremist) account.
The Russian interior ministry said on Monday it has put Grozev on the wanted list "on Russian Criminal Code charges." The journalist wrote on his Twitter account that he had "no idea on what grounds the Kremlin has put" him on the wanted list.