For a week now public discussions in Bulgaria have been focused on claims for an existing link between the Skripal case in the UK and the alleged poisoning attempt against Bulgarian arms businessman Emilian Gebrev. The version was first launched by British investigative site Bellingcat and its Russian partner Insider, and then was spread by some media in Bulgaria under the titles of "Agent of the Russian GRU, involved in Skripal case, connected with Gebrev’s poisoning” and “Security Service Monitoring Committee dealing with poisoning of Gebrev". According to The Times, London Police and MI5 have been investigating the Bulgarian case since 2015. In general, the subject of the investigation is a Russian agent nicknamed Fedotov, who was in the UK at the time when Skripal was poisoned with a chemical agent of the Novichok family. Fedotov was in Bulgaria three times, one of which coincided with the poisoning of Gebrev. It is claimed that in the United Kingdom, Fedotov was an assistant, not the perpetrator of the Skripal assassination.

The case received political overtones after a meeting of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov with Emma Hopkins, British Ambassador to Sofia. Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov, Interior Minister Mladen Marinov and SANS head Dimitar Georgiev also took part in the meeting. Additional nuances were added by various other political statements made. After on February 10 GERB parliamentary leader Tsvetan Tsvetanov expressed the opinion that Russia would try to intervene in upcoming elections in Bulgaria, Moscow's ambassador to Sofia Anatoly Makarov replied that he had received no such instructions and described allegations of Russia’s connection with the poisoning of Bulgarian businessman Gebrev as absurd.

After the Prime Minister's conversation with the British Ambassador, it became clear that the hypothesis of a link between the Skripal case and Gebrev’s poisoning was initially launched by the businessman himself last year. However, laboratory tests in Finland that Gebrev ordered did not reveal presence of substances from the list of chemical weapons. It turned out that there were traces of insecticides in a coffee machine at the businessman’s home and similar substance was found in the salad he had eaten at dinner with partners. Whether ironically or not, Trud daily newspaper focused on these findings writing an article under the title "Gebrev Poisoned by Coffee Maker and Salad".

Last Friday, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov asked how it was possible for use of some military poisonous substance in Europe to go unnoticed in 2015. “How have they found about it now?” he added and the question remains open today, giving rise to various hypotheses.

Some claim this is an attempt to provoke a different reaction from Bulgaria, since last year it did not join most of the EU and NATO countries that expelled Russian diplomats because of the Skripal case. Then Sofia said it needed more evidence of Russia's intervention in the attempted assassination and yesterday added there was no evidence yet, although it continued to seek for such evidence in full co-ordination with the UK services.

Expressing satisfaction after meeting with Prime Minister Borissov, Ambassador Emma Hopkins commented that "Bulgarian and British services are working together on the Gebrev case and ... the investigation will continue after Brexit." Why did the diplomat consider it necessary to say this and is the strange resumption of the case somehow connected to UK's separation from the EU?

A version was also launched, according to which the Bulgarian arms dealer was subject to attempted assassination because of private business interests. According to former SANS chief Tsvetlin Yovchev, however, there was no possibility for involvement of a Russian special service in such a case because it would mean that Moscow had no control over its own special services and their employees.

The case remains open, because in just two days, on February 14th, it will be on the agenda of discussions of the parliamentary committee dealing with security services oversight. Which still means the case remains political.

English: Alexander Markov