Vanio Tanov was recently reappointed by the caretaker government to head the Customs Agency, but in 2007, the Main Directorate for Combatting Organized Crime (GDBOP), then under his leadership, summoned for a “check” a blogger – Mihail Bozgunov, nicknamed Michel.

In the precinct, he was told that it was illegal to publish information which calls for disturbing public order. Michel has signed the “Warning Protocol” that he would stop publishing on his site articles that could be illegal, Dnevnik agency wrote at the time.

According to Michel, the name Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (GDBOP) has been inscribed on his investigation file. In the documents, it has been written with bold letters that his blog should be continuously monitored.

Michel was, and probably still is, a sympathizer of the protests for saving the pristine Strandza Mountain and region and its Black Sea coast and used his personal website to inform where and how protests will be organized.

“In the police precinct, I also saw printed pages from another blog,” says Michel. It was confirmed later that other bloggers have been summoned as well. This was a classic campaign to intimidate and choke the incredibly strong and rising protests, which were then organized via the Internet for the very first time.

Precisely these protests to save Strandzha in 2007 gave birth of the term “Eagle Bridge Protester”.

Then, acting in a typical cop way, even in an “Orwell” manner, the Interior Ministry intercepted information channels and decided to cut them off.

Vanio Tanov HARNESSED THE FULL RESOURCE OF GDBOP TO SEARCH FOR AND INVESTIGATE the IP addresses of the people who wrote on the Internet in defense of Strandzha and who called for protests. These bloggers were sharing articles such as “Crusade against Strandzha” and other publications about the crimes of the government towards Bulgarian nature. This generated broad and dangerous to the then-ruling coalition public discontent and turned people of free speech into the enemies of the reigning oligarchy. Bloggers were tracked down, questioned and censored.

Tanov, the cop and snitch from the former Communist State Security with the alias “Guergov”, who became a few years ago a true laughing stock after a leaked recording revealed that he cannot distinguish a social security number from a phone number, ordered his police mob to go after bloggers because he did not have the balls to go after journalists, not speaking of the real thugs!

Then, in 2007, the bloggers organized resistance against GDBOP – see here and here,·and here. blogs do remember.

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 At that time, while Tanov was going after bloggers, newspapers writing about the outrages in Strandzha were seized by thugs (known in Bulgaria as mutras – editor’ note), while other thugs rampaged editorial offices (the case with Maria Nikolaeva and the newspaper Politics).

However, Tanov still did not have the balls to go after thugs and was harassing bloggers.

Then another thug, known as “Buddha”, (former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov -editor’s note) liked Tanov and took him in his in Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party (GERB) and a little later nominated him to run for Mayor of Ruse – in the same 2007.

Then current caretaker Prime Minister, Georgi Bliznashki was a member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and was propping the coalition government.

Now Bliznashki is a self-proclaimed “Prime Minister of the Protest”.

Now protesters are taking pictures with him and do not see the “snitch” scheme – Bliznashki as a provocateur sent to the protests rallies by cops to have legitimacy in the future and to control the situation from the inside!

Archives talk – in 2007 and now, in 2014. However, protesters seem to have a very short memory or at least one that is missing seven years.

***

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