The hypotheses around the murder of Alexey Petrov - comments of experts and journalists
Experts and journalists described the murder of Alexei Petrov as extremely professionally prepared. In "The Day Begins" on BNT on August 17, they commented on the scarce information available about the assassination, but also on the influence of the murdered businessman.
"If we try to make some kind of ranking against those killed in the past 20 years, I would say this is one of the most influential people. It seems to me that we should look for the reason in the last months. After his acquittal in 2021, he sort of disappeared from the public domain and reappeared somewhat unexpectedly at the end of the previous parliament. His insurance company was very active in blocking a law related to European insurance rules. Then there was talk of the Alexey Petrov coalition," said Tihomir Bezlov, a security expert.
The role he played in cementing the new ruling coalition was not overlooked either. Along with the names he has mentioned in recent public appearances.
"Geshev is one of the names (former Bulgaria’s Prosecutor General), Petrov saying that he had to leave and then indeed Geshev "left", the father of Kiril Petkov (Kiril Petkov is a former Prime Minister, co-chair of the second largest parliamentary group “We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaira” coalition) and the other name is Boyko Borisov (leader of the largest parliamentary group GERB-UDF, former Prime Minister) - these are the three names that came out of Alexey Petrov's mouth before he went to the afterlife. The surprising thing is that he demonstrated his presence and his merits for the fastening of the assembly (between GERB-UDF and WCC-DB). Moreover, he persistently showed that the way was open for his return to the State Agency for National Security (SANS), which is also very strange," said Valeria Veleva, a journalist.
"It is noteworthy that no one denied the role he had. If you notice Borissov did not comment at all yesterday, and Kiril Petkov commented very generally on what happened," added Tihomir Bezlov, a security expert.
According to former Sofia city prosecutor, Nikolai Kokinov, the murder of Alexey Petrov will remain unsolved.
"For 20 years as a prosecutor, I also headed the criminal department in those years, and we went from crime scene to crime scene, but I have no recollection of the Ministry of Interior finding any of the killers of the gangster murders at the time. In those murders, usually the perpetrator, the person who orders them and the enablers are different people, and it was extremely difficult to solve such cases. If the perpetrator is discovered, he usually does not know who ordered the killing."
Inspections of the murder scene continue today, and analysts expect it to cause political turmoil and a re-distribution of Alexey Petrov's business.
What are the possible hypotheses about Alexey Petrov's murder?
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On August 16, Alexey Petrov, a businessman, an expert in security, a former State Agency for National Security (SANS) advisor, a former defendant in "Octopus" investigation into organised crime and former presidential candidate was shot dead while walking on a path in Dragalevtsi mountainside area in Vitosha mountains near Sofia. A woman who was accompanying him was admitted to “Pirogov” emergency hospital with serious gunshot injuries and underwent surgery.
Three bodyguards were accompanying Petrov at the time of the murder.
