POLISH MEDIA: FORMER BULGARIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE USA, POPTODOROVA, DETAINED AT WARSAW AIRPORT OVER ALLEGED THEFT OF COSMETICS

The former Bulgarian Ambassador to the USA Elena Poptodorova was detained at the airport in Warsaw for allegedly attempted theft of cosmetics from a duty-free shop.

Bulgaria’s ministry of foreign affairs confirmed for BNT the news, which was circulated earlier by Russian and Polish media. The incident happened on Monday 27th of February, around 16:00. The cosmetic products were worth PLN 1,600 or just over 720 BGN (360 euro), the Foreign Ministry said. According to other media, because of an urgent phone call, Poptodorova stepped out of the shop to answer the phone, forgetting she was still holding the product in her hands and therefore was fined. Poptodorova had not contacted the Bulgarian embassy in Warsaw.

Poptodorova is a career diplomat. She was a senior official, heading various departments in Bulgaria’s foreign ministry. Before 1989, she was the personal interpreter of Todor Zhivkov, Bulgaria’s long-standing communist dictator.

In 1990, she was elected an MP to the Grand National Assembly on the ticket of the Bulgarian Socialist Party. She was a member of the committees on foreign policy, national security and media. She was an MP in three successive National Assemblies (36th, 37th and 38th).

Poptodorova actively participated in Bulgaria’s foreign policy in the recent decades.

She was Bulgaria’s ambassador in Washington from 2002 to 2008 and from 2010 to 2016.