Prime Minister Rumen Radev
Bulgaria has secured the removal of a third Russian national from the European Union's proposed 21st sanctions package against Moscow, Prime Minister Rumen Radev confirmed to bTV on Tuesday, saying Sofia had been prepared to block the entire package if its demands were not met.
Radev did not name the individual, saying only that the person is "related to the safe functioning of the Sofia metro." Bulgarian media reports, citing unnamed sources, have previously identified the businessman in question as Iskander Makhmudov, the majority owner of Transmashholding, whose subsidiary Metrovagonmash has supplied trains for the Sofia metro since acquiring the company in 2006. According to the Focus news agency, the Bulgarian argument was that keeping Makhmudov on the list could hinder the supply of spare parts and the maintenance of the metro system. The Foreign Ministry has not confirmed the identity.
"We have insisted on removing an individual who is related to the safe functioning of the Sofia metro," Radev said. "You saw that they were removed from the list."
The metro-linked businessman joins two other Russians already shielded by Sofia: Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, and Vagit Alekperov, the founder and co-owner of Lukoil. Kirill's name was removed from the draft at a meeting of EU ambassadors on Sunday at Bulgaria's insistence, Euronews reported. The patriarch had been included in the European Commission's initial proposal after describing the full-scale invasion of Ukraine as a "holy war," and former Bulgarian Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov has said Kirill used his religious authority to justify Russian aggression and the killing of civilians.
