Bulgarian top politicians and activists have expressed outrage at invasion threats made by Pyotr Tolstoy, deputy-speaker of the Russian parliament, that the Kremlin will attack Bulgaria after finishing its war in Ukraine.

In a broadcast on the Russian state television Rossia 1, Tolstoy said that Russia will make military hits on Nato members Bulgaria and Romania once it finishes its operation in Ukraine.

"We are going to shoot [in Bulgaria and Romania], but first we have to finish up in Ukraine," Tolstoy said.

He added that the Bulgarian Black Sea is Russian as Russian citizens own property there and that they will organise protests in the country.

“In Bulgaria, on the coast everyone is our citizens. Demonstrations will begin there, do not worry. We do not have any problems there,” Tolstoy said.

Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov said he will ask the foreign ministry to react and give a clear sign to Russia that such statements are unacceptable. 

However, he said that the Russian ambassador to Bulgaria, Eleonora Mitrofanova, should not be expelled because of Tolstoy’s words as they were not hers.

"We should not succumb to provocations. Russian citizens in Bulgaria should be treated as citizens living in Bulgaria. If they break the law or make a provocation, it is another thing, but they cannot become victims of someone who wants to take advantage in this way. A large part of these statements are made for internal use — for the Russian audience to show how great the things that are currently being done by the leadership of the Russian Federation are,” Denkov said as quoted by Dnevnik news outlet.

He added that they also aim to frighten Bulgarians.

“I want to say: ‘You should not be afraid, there is no danger to Bulgaria and the reason is that we are members of Nato, Russia will not dare to attack a Nato member’,” Denkov said.

The Atlantic Council NGO said that Tolstoy’s statement was part of the Russian hybrid aggression against Bulgaria and should not be left without consequences.

This is not the first highly controversial statement by Tolstoy about Bulgaria. In 2016, in an interview with the Bulgarian public broadcaster, he said that Russia will buy the whole of Bulgaria and it has already bought half of the coastal area.

Ivailo Mirchev, MP of the ruling pro-Western Change Continues-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) coalition, wrote on Facebook that Mitrofanova must explain why Tolstoy claims that the Bulgarian coastal area is Russian.