Russia is working to destabilise Bulgaria following the murder of Aleksei Petrov, former secretary of Bulgaria’s national security agency (DANS) and former member of the Communist-era police counter-terrorism unit, Atanas Atanassov, co-leader of Democratic Bulgaria, one of Bulgaria's ruling parties, said on August 18.

Petrov was killed on August 16 while walking with an unidentified woman on Vitosha mountain.

“After the murder of Alexei Petrov it can be noticed that the Russian agents have received instructions to use the situation and work to provoke political destabilisation in the country,” Atanassov said as quoted by Mediapool news outlet.

He added that the country’s special services and the whole security sector should step up their monitoring of criminal groups connected to Russian organised crime and prevent further escalation of the tensions.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov called a session of the security services to discuss the situation in the country.

The motives for the shooting of Petrov, who has survived assassination attempts in the past, are not known. 

Petrov had become more active publicly in the past few months, which local media reported was a sign of improved relations between Petrov and the leader of the ruling Gerb party, Boyko Borissov.

In the 1990s, the two had a joint company. Petrov was also the founder of two insurance companies in the early 1990s, Apolo and Balkan and Spartak, which were rumoured to have been involved in blackmailing businesses to pay for protection.

In 2001, Petrov rejoined the security services. However, in 2010, he was arrested and accused of being involved in the so-called Octopus case. At the time, prosecutors accused Petrov of heading a criminal group involved in tax frauds, racketeering, physical assaults, prostitution and human trafficking. He was acquitted in 2021.

In 2011, Petrov ran for president but got less than 1% of the votes.

In July this year, Petrov said in his last public interview, for Bulgarian National Radio, that the government backed by Gerb and Change Continues-Democratic Bulgaria is the best possible option for the country due to the Russian war in Ukraine.