Former Prime Minister Kiril Petkov confirmed Thursday in the Bulgarian Parliament that he will no longer enjoy the services of the National Security Service (NSS) because, according to the agency, «there is no danger to his life».
The Renaissance party recently introduced a bill to change the law regulating the NSS with the aim of ensuring that high-ranking politicians enjoy these security services only until the end of their term of office and not until four years after leaving office.
Currently, former prime ministers Boyko Borisov and Stefan Yanev use the security of this state body. The approved measure was put in place due to the huge expenses caused by the constant changes of prime ministers in the country, the daily ‘Dnevnik’ reported.
This change follows a controversy over a publication in the German daily ‘Die Welt’ the day before, which specified that, during Petkov’s tenure, Bulgaria secretly supplied Soviet-era fuel and weapons to Ukraine.
However, Petkov has clarified that «there was no direct export to Ukraine». «Our partners from Poland and Romania, from the United States and the United Kingdom bought weapons from the Bulgarian industry. Yes, some of these weapons went to the Ukrainian army, but this does not mean that Bulgaria exported: it is because our partners imported to Ukraine,» he has settled.
Petkov’s government, ousted by a June no-confidence motion by Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB), could not send military weapons to Kiev until December because the Socialist Party, a coalition government ally, blocked this possibility in May.
However, despite the fact that Bulgaria had not shipped armaments until then, its suppliers exported a large number of weapons to the country. In August, Sofia approved agreements for arms exports worth more than 500 million euros.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
