"The theme for "The Eight Dwarfs" and "The Notary" ended in public life. Now on the agenda are the political struggles surrounding the upcoming elections. Accordingly, this topic about the investigations that are allegedly being conducted into corruption at the highest levels of power serves this narrative.
Andrei Yankulov, an expert from the Anti-Corruption Fund, former prosecutor and former deputy interior minister, commented this to BNR.
In his words, the institutions themselves release controlled things that make a "poisonous double of a leak". "It's not really a leak at all, it's just providing information to certain media, but not in the normal order," he explained.
"I cannot perceive this in any normal way. It is clear why it is done - precisely to verify a funnel".
"While these initial actions on the investigation are going on, it is not even known if they have actually started, Zhivko Kotsev calls the chief prosecutor on some applications to meet with him. What business does the chief prosecutor have to hold such a meeting with the chief secretary of the Ministry of the Interior - he can hold a meeting with him on official grounds, but here the occasion is obviously personal and that is the attitude - personal that Kotsev apparently expects to receive in this criminal proceeding, which it's just getting started.
On April 4, the supervising prosecutors will get acquainted with the materials of this investigation, and already on April 3, the attorney general and the city attorney receive a person who knows that he is involved in this story and now wonders in what capacity he will get there - will he be a witness, will he be accused.
Whether the meeting was initiated by Kotsev, or whether it was initiated by Sarafov and Kirilova, and what was the subject of the meeting - whether they pressured him to resign as chief secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, or whether he asked them to make him a witness - whatever of this is true, all of this is absolutely unacceptable. Meetings of the heads of the investigating institutions with a person potentially involved in this investigation cannot be held," Andrey Yankulov commented.
In his words, this is another criminal proceeding for corruption at the highest levels of power, which is allegedly conducted and which is a "smoke screen". According to him, the essence behind this "smoke screen" is defamation of some people, political dividends for some and political damages for others.
The collected evidence is used in a way that only the state's repressive bodies can do, the expert said categorically. He recalled what happened to other investigations that started noisily - "from one moment on, everything goes quiet, nobody is interested in this proceeding, months and years later it ends in complete silence.
Still, things come out that purely objectively lead to the absolutely incontrovertible conclusion that such a person as Zhivko Kotsev cannot hold any high state position, commented the expert from the Anti-Corruption Fund and added categorically that he is an inadmissible person of this post to receive expensive gifts from businessmen, no matter what the occasion. However, the protection of such a person by a party, in this case PP-DB, is also incomprehensible to him.
Andrei Yankulov's forecast is:
"The moment they start questioning Kotsev, I will no longer remember that pressure was exerted on him by the chief prosecutor and others present at the meeting, even if that was the case. From this signal we must realize that nothing will come out. Objectively, there is nothing to happen there.