RUSSIAN PATRIARCH HAS BECOME THE FRONTMAN OF MOSCOW'S INFORMATION OPERATION AGAINST BULGARIA

Russia has activised information operations against neighboring countries, using wide range of methods, including manipulations with landmark historical dates. Not for the first time the Kremlin send its religious away team led by Moscow Patriarch Cyril (Vladimir Gundiaev) to the Balkans - which has proven to be an assemblage point for the geopolitical interests of the Russian Federation.

On March 3, 2018, Bulgaria celebrated the 140th anniversary of the San Stefano Peace Treaty. Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov spoke with gratitude to all the peoples who helped Bulgaria 140 years ago. In particular, letters with words of thanks for the liberation of Bulgaria during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878 were sent to the governments of Poland, Romania, Montenegro, Moldova, Finland and Ukraine - as a token of gratitude to the nations whose representatives died 140 years ago for the freedom of Bulgaria. On the occasion of the holiday, a parade took place, in which the President of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev, also traditionally expressed his gratitude to all the peoples who fought the Ottoman Empire. The neutral diplomatic speech of the Bulgarian president has been used by the Moscow Patriarch Cyril (Gundyaev) to develop an information sabotage. He criticized the speech of the Bulgarian President, caliming that it is only Russia to whom Bulgaria should be gratefull. This statement has immediately been picked up and hyped by the Russian media.

In addition, Gundyaev used the platform of Bulgarian television to lobby the interests of Moscow, without leaving the topic of war in Ukraine. He repeated the thesis of Russian propaganda about the "civil war on the Donbass". The Embassy of Ukraine in Bulgaria immediately responded to these objections with an open message.

But analyzing the provocative statements of the Russian Patriarch in Bulgaria, it is worth paying attention to the accompanying information background that was provided to him by the Russian Institute of the CIS countries. This organization is headed by Konstantin Zatulin, a deputy of the RF State Duma. It was him and his assistants who were repeatedly exposed as active "managers" of the Russian hybrid war against Ukraine and other European countries.

For example, on March 2, Kirill Frolov - a head of the Department for Interaction of the Russian Orthodox Church with the CIS Institute (whose correspondence was published under the codename FrolovLeaks on the InformNapalm resource) - gave a very pretentious interview for the News Front propagandist channel, in which he stated: "The Patriarch's visit to Bulgaria will move the mountains and change the course of history."

It is iportant to take Ciril's statement literally, because its theses were taken from tutorials, developed by Frolov and his colleagues by the Institute of the CIS countries epeciall for this operation in Bulgaria. That is, the main task of Gundyayev was to change and distort historical facts. 

Patriarch Cyril (Gundiaev) really fulfilled the Kremlin's plan to "change history" by speaking with theses that contradict real historical facts. It is likely that the scandal that, he deliberately made in Bulgaria, was aimed to hide other historical aspects of this war that Bulgarian historians have raised. 

For example, Bulgarian researcher Nikola Grigorov in an interview for the Faktor.bg, noted that the purpose of historical speculation in Moscow is to create false representations, as if Bulgarians should be thankful to Russia for life, although the real aim of the Russian Empire was to occupy Bulgaria itself.

source: InformNapalm