I am 100 percent sure that Russian agents are behind the explosion in my warehouse, Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev told the Guardian, BTA reported.

Gebrev told the British publication that Sunday's explosion was another attack on him by agents of the Russian military intelligence GRU.

"There is no way this was an accident, there was nothing in the building that could explode without outside intervention," the Bulgarian arms dealer, who is believed to have been poisoned with a nerve agent in 2015, told the Guardian in a telephone interview. a substance from the "Novichok" group. 

Gebrev's warehouse near the town of Karnobat was rocked by an explosion in the early hours of Sunday, the "Guardian" recalls.

This is the fifth time in recent years that there have been explosions at sites of Emko, Gebrev's arms company.

The Bulgarian prosecutor's office linked the previous attacks to Russian agents. 

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Gebrev fell into a coma in 2015 and Western government and intelligence officials believe he was poisoned with Novichok by GRU officers.

And he himself has now suggested that the explosion at his warehouse on Sunday was also their doing.  

Gebrev told the Guardian that he spoke to his head of security, who reported to him that the alarm system in the warehouse went off moments before the explosion, suggesting that the building had been broken into from the outside.

Security guards at the site were preparing to check why the system had been activated when they heard a loud explosion.

No one was injured in the explosion.  

The attacks on Gebrev, which are believed to be the work of the GRU, have led many to speculate that he may be connected to the supply of weapons to Ukraine, the Guardian reports.

Last year, the businessman said in an email to the New York Times that his companies were connected to the supply of weapons to Ukraine, something he had previously denied, the British publication noted. 

Now he has again claimed that he has not supplied weapons to Ukraine since the signing of the Minsk agreements in late 2014, which led to a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.

Gebrev also emphasized that he has not supplied weapons to Ukraine since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. 

Whatever the reason, Gebrev has clearly made powerful enemies in Russia.

Between 2011 and 2020, there were explosions at four sites associated with his company.

Last year, Bulgaria's foreign ministry expelled a Russian diplomat suspected of involvement in the bombings and called on Moscow to help with the investigation.

The Bulgarian prosecutor's office said there was reason to believe that the four explosions were connected to the attempt to poison Gebrev.

The arms dealer's son and an executive from his company also fell into a coma.

"I almost died," Gebrev said in a 2019 interview with the Guardian, in which he recounted his poisoning.

The investigative website "Bellingket" released information that a team of GRU agents was in Bulgaria at the same time as the attempted poisoning of Gebrev. 

The arms dealer expresses his dissatisfaction with the fact that the Bulgarian authorities have not brought anyone to justice in connection with the attacks against him.

"It's been 11 years since the first explosion and no one has been punished for it," he says.

a blast

Emilian Gebrev

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