Investigative journalist Hristo Grozev warned that Russia is leading coordinated efforts to destabilize Bulgaria and other Eastern European countries through espionage and propaganda networks.
In an interview with bTV, Grozev revealed that he has been working for months on a new investigation, which will be published tomorrow and will shed light on the Bulgarian conduits of Russian propaganda.
“It is important for Russian services to create any form of destabilization of the civilizational choice of Bulgaria and countries like Bulgaria“, he said.
Grozev hinted that a Bulgarian journalist “will not sleep tonight“ because he will be named with a specific role in a network linked to the hacking department of the Russian military intelligence (GRU) – the same unit that was behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and Emilian Gebrev.
The new espionage activity that I have been exposing in the last 6 months is related to the GRU department known for its dangerous operations. It was this department that poisoned the Skripal family and Emilian Gebrev. They have a hacking department that recruited 12 students from a university in Voronezh, Russia. This has been happening since 2019,“, Grozev explained.
He also said that during the investigation they discovered their unprotected server.
“That's how we were able to learn incredible things about these hackers. We saw their chats and a list of targets, 630 websites of institutions around the world. Among them are energy regulators to sites that contain data on transport hubs, many sites related to medicine, related to DNA data, technology service providers in Europe and the US, there are two ministries. The second activity is disinformation, creating chaos around the world by releasing fake news. It is in this part that our discovery of the Bulgarian journalist who worked for them is also located. But I will not reveal who this is, so that he does not sleep well today“, explained Grozev.
He only added that it is assumed that since 2019 he has been in contact with the hackers and has achieved a lot.
“This is about low-level access to my police and tax data, which are sought. "I hope it hasn't spread to a higher level," the investigative journalist commented.
Grozev also said that the six Bulgarians convicted in Britain of spying for the Kremlin tried to kidnap him twice.
"They were in my home. They were following me during my vacation," he shared.
He also commented on the referendum on the euro, proposed by the president, as "cover for Moscow's plans." According to him, such initiatives, which question European integration, serve Russian strategic interests.
Grozev also described the agreement signed between a Bulgarian party and Putin's party as "a direct provocation."