SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgaria’s foreign ministry said it would summon on Thursday the Russian ambassador to Sofia “for explanations” after Moscow put Christo Grozev, a Bulgarian citizen and the executive director of investigative news outlet Bellingcat, on a wanted list.
Grozev, Bellingcat’s chief investigator on Russia, is “wanted under an article of the Criminal Code,” according to information published on Russia’s interior ministry website earlier this week. It did not specify the exact article.
“The Russian ambassador will be summoned for explanations,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said, after leading Bulgarian political parties called for official support for Grozev.
The Russian embassy was not immediately able to comment when contacted by telephone.
Grozev has angered Moscow for years with investigations into the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and the downing of the MH17 passenger plane over eastern Ukraine.
Russia has denied responsibility for any of those attacks.
Grozev, who keeps his whereabouts hidden for security reasons, has said he was the first foreign journalist to be put on a Russian wanted list and said it might be a move to prevent other journalists from looking into what is happening in Russia.
“I have no idea on what grounds the Kremlin has put me on its “wanted list”… In a way it doesn’t matter – for years they’ve made it clear they are scared of our work and would stop at nothing to make it go away,” he said in a tweet.
His recent reports have been on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Grozev “focuses on security threats, extraterritorial clandestine operations, and the weaponisation of information” according to Bellingcat’s website.
Speaking to Bulgarian NOVA TV channel by video link from an unknown location on Wednesday, Grozev said was afraid for his life and that someone on their own initiative may want to do “a favour to the Kremlin” and attempt to eliminate or abduct him.
Grozev said he has been offered help by the Netherlands, Sweden, Estonia and Austria, where he has been living in recent years. The office of Bulgaria’s president has said Sofia is also taking steps to ensure his security.
(Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova; Editing by Gareth Jones)
