With a parliamentary declaration, the ruling coalition We Continue the Change/Democratic Bulgaria (PP/DB) are insisting that Russian ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova be summoned to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry to explain whether Moscow stands by the statement made by the deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma Pyotr Tolstoy.

• Russian ambassador Mitrofanova will be given warning over outrageous statement by Duma deputy chairman about Bulgaria

On Russian state TV, Tolstoy talked about Bulgaria and Romania as potential targets of a future Russian expansion, but to get there Russia must first “finish with Ukraine”, he said. According to Pyotr Tolstoy, there were “citizens of ours” occupying the entire Bulgarian coastline and there “will be be no problems”.  PP/DB have requested that the special services be heard out in parliament to answer the question: Are there grounds for the Russian diaspora along Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast to be perceived as a threat to civil peace in the country? In saying that the large Russian community on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast can be stimulated to start demonstrations, Tolstoy publicly declared Bulgaria’s coastline to be Russian territory, and the Russians living there to be  “sleeper cells” for organizing disturbances, Democratic Bulgaria MP Ivaylo Mitkovski said.