Secret documents showcase Russian influence on Bulgarian Church, according to Atanas Čobanov

Among the secret documents published online by the project DDoSecrets, one can find those confirming Russian attempts of influence the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Chief editor of the Bulgarian portal Bivol, Atanas Čobanov said it on air of Hromadske.

“They contain lots of information no one has ever found in such an orderly format: these leaks took place, then they were lost, disappeared from the network, and now we find them in large numbers and in one place,” said Atanas Čobanov.

“When this information is systematized, it will be possible to glean some new things from it, like, for example, those we immediately found out about Bulgaria ... As (Russia, ed.) Influences the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, so that the Metropolitans, which are connected with Russia, with the Russian Orthodox Church, retain their influence, just the same about the other data set related to political life and so on. Some interesting information can be found, and not only for Orthodox countries, but also for the whole of Europe,” the journalist emphasized.

He also noted that he did not come across documents with the stamp “Top secret” in the archive, therefore it is unlikely that this leak could have serious consequences for Russian officials.

On January 26, the Distributed Denial of Secrets project (DDoSecrets) published documents from the Russian Federation, received by hacking. Most of the published materials are related to Russia's aggression in Donbas, and they also relate to contacts between Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church. The size of the materials published online is 175 gigabytes.