A man with a hammer broke the plaque at the Monument to the Soviet Army. He hit right on the inscription “To the Soviet Army, the liberator of the grateful Bulgarian people”. He managed to decipher almost the entire word “army” as well as part of “liberator”.
Shortly before noon, he was caught on video surveillance cameras hitting with the hammer and police officers went to arrest him. It turned out that he was 61 years old, the hammer was still in him. The police are expected to report the case to the prosecutor’s office with an opinion to open an investigation into the damage and destruction of other people’s property.
While the Ministry of Internal Affairs was conducting an inspection, many people were happy to take pictures in front of the battered monument. Right-wing parties and various associations have been fighting for its abolition for decades. In fact, there has been a decision to dismantle it since 1993, but the state and the Metropolitan Municipality cannot understand each other.
At the other extreme was the emotion of Lenin Stanoev – the man known for cleaning the monument after its numerous paint overs over the years. Lenin took a piece of the plaque as a souvenir.
The incident happened a day before the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. February 23 is celebrated in Russia as the Defender of the Fatherland Day, and during socialism it was an official holiday of the USSR – the Day of the Soviet Army. That is why wreaths and flowers were placed in front of the monument. The Russian embassy stated that it is blasphemous to encroach on the monument and thus insult “the feat of the Soviet soldiers who liberated Bulgaria from Nazism”. They demand that the Bulgarian authorities liquidate the “consequences of the crime” and punish the guilty.
