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Sergei Nikolashin was a guest in the parade of Soviet and Russian cars at Dragoman.
Suspicions are that they are related to more frequent
explosions in our military factories
In addition, they were looking for connections for these Soviet repairs.
equipment to be held at sites approved by the Kremlin
In less than a year, Bulgaria has been hunting down a third group of Russian spies. Never before have Bulgarian counterintelligence, prosecution and diplomacy taken such a firm stance against foreign agents.
From the laconic announcement of the state prosecution it was clear that this time also the Russian spies declared persona non grata were under diplomatic cover.
From two independent sources we were able to establish that he is a deputy commercial attaché in the Moscow office in Sofia: Sergei Nikolashin and Vadim Bikov.
It is more than strange, however, that the information on the website of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Bulgaria is still present in the name of Dmitry Yaroshenko, whom our country expelled in January.
It also appears from the information of the Prosecutor’s Office that the unregulated activity of “sales representatives” has been carried out since 2016. At that time only Nikolashin was in Bulgaria, while Bikov arrived in Bulgaria last year. This clearly shows that, although the Bulgarian authorities have taken radical measures, the Russian side does not in any way renounce its attempts to influence the processes of our country and especially the Euro-Atlantic orientation of Bulgaria and, therefore, of the Balkans. This is evidenced by the evidence collected against the two, whose activity can be summarized in three directions. Everything related to defense and our military industry.
It was established that Nikolashin and Bikov were seeking classified information on plans for the modernization of the armed forces. This certainly includes information about your capabilities.
Capacity for
maintenance
of the new
F-16 aircraft,
Block 70, whose arrival is expected in a few years, as well as the intentions of our army to acquire drones.
The second area in which Russian intelligence has worked is the identification and contact with key officials of the Ministry of Defense on whom public procurement depends and the conclusion of contracts with foreign contractors. Here, in addition to the military, the Russian side also has a purely financial interest. Although Bulgaria has been a member of NATO for a long time, our country continues to pay huge sums of money to Russia for the repair of old equipment. There are many examples of incorrect implementation of contracts by Russia, as well as poor-quality repairs. However, long years of Russian influence and established dependencies often put the Bulgarian armed forces in a situation where the executors of repairs to obsolete Soviet armaments were determined not in Sofia but in Moscow.
This whole process is fully tailored to the interests of Russia, as money sinks into endless plans and the Bulgarian army runs out of sufficient financial resources to optimize.
Particularly interesting is the third area in which Russian military intelligence has acted: the acquisition of classified information on the Bulgarian defense industry, its production capabilities and its development plans. Of strategic, political, economic and military interest for Russia is Bulgaria the loss of its traditional markets for quality and relatively cheap products. Moscow has been making efforts for a long time, if not for the Bulgarian arms industry, then at least to control it.
The public mechanism for this is Russian license applications, with which weapons designed since the days of the Soviet Union have been produced in our factories for decades. Bulgarian military traders may not be a serious competition for the Russian arms giants, but it is a matter of influence for the Kremlin to control where, to whom, what and how much to sell.
And, apparently, Nikolashin and Bikov had the task of investigating, and perhaps controlling, the production of weapons in our country. The mechanisms to influence the achievement of the goals are diverse, and it is not excluded that some of them may exist quite extreme.
Especially when the intensification of Russian military intelligence in our country coincides with
frequent in
the last
strange years
incidents
in Bulgarian factories.
Whether these or other Russian spies have a role in the sabotage is a matter of evidence. But it can be stated with certainty that the proximity to Russia of some of the Bulgarian players in the arms business has always been a guarantee of their financial prosperity, in exchange for the protection of Russian interests in our country.
Nikolashin and Bikov, although aware that they could be exposed at any time by the Bulgarian services, in the context of previously expelled Russian diplomats, continued their subversive activities.
Sofia’s third hit
However, Sofia’s third “blow” to Russian intelligence in less than a year should be a clear signal to Moscow that its actions will also become increasingly difficult on our territory.
Exactly 1 year ago, the first spy with diplomatic immunity was expelled, at the beginning of 2020 two more, and with the last the number becomes 5 in total.
In late January, prosecutors announced that two other diplomats were being investigated for espionage. They were described as a first secretary (one of eight at the time) and a sales office clerk. Then “24 hours” revealed that it is about Dmitry Yaroshenko and Alexander Khvatov. Yaroshenko was a member of the Russian foreign intelligence staff before being appointed first secretary of the Bulgarian embassy. He created false identities of spies and brought them into our country. These are the so-called “Illegals”. According to SANS, Yaroshenko was looking for options to introduce “new identities” into the matrices with Bulgarian citizens by mixing false information into previously prepared false documents. He traveled across the country, filming the environment in which the “illegals” had to live prepared for the implementation.
Hvatov, for his part, went to our southern border, where the route of the gas connection of the interconnector with Greece will pass. There he met different people and showed an unhealthy interest in the project. This impressed the SANS agents. It turned out that he was looking for other energy related information in Bulgaria. He then reported it to the Russian intelligence service in Moscow. Following the revelations, Russian Ambassador Dmitry Makarov was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to receive notes of protest against the actions of his officials.
The first spy SANS and the prosecution discovered and reported on him on October 28 last year was Vladimir Rusyaev. He was also the first secretary of the Moscow mission in Bulgaria.
Since September 2018, he has been holding secret meetings with a Bulgarian citizen who has access to classified information from NATO and the European Union. She promised money for what she was looking for. Russia had an interest in the Defense Headquarters. Its boss assists the Minister, the Vice Ministers, the Permanent Secretary. The spy was also interested in the Directorate for Strategic Planning, which implements the national defense strategy. He also built a career at the GRU. He worked in Spain and Latin America before arriving in Bulgaria in 2017.
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