Bulgaria changes position twice over Russian interference in EU Commission president’s plane landing

Within a single day, the Bulgarian government has first dismissed possible Russian involvement in navigation issues experienced by a plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen over its territory and then contradicted its own statement.

Source: European Pravda, citing Politico

Details: On the morning of 4 September, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov told Parliament that the European Commission president’s plane had not been subjected to interference but only to a partial signal disruption, which is often observed in densely populated areas.

Bulgarian Transport Minister Grozdan Karadjov also denied that there was any evidence of GPS signal interference during von der Leyen’s flight.

But a few hours later the Bulgarian government changed its position again, and at an impromptu press conference, Zhelyazkov spoke of "a mess of information with questions, facts and the circumstances interpreted in a way that was intended to hurt the Bulgarian institutions".

He said the fact that ground systems in Bulgaria did not register any interference does not mean that the aircraft’s onboard instruments did not detect interference either.

"In this regard, I have instructed the Civil Aviation Authority to contact the airline that is operating the flight in order to conduct an additional check regarding the instruments and computers in the aircraft," Zhelyazkov said.

Background:

• On 31 August, the GPS system on the European Commission president’s aircraft was jammed as it was en route to Bulgaria.
• In the wake of the incident, the EU will be deploying additional satellites in low Earth orbit to strengthen resilience to GPS interference and improve detection capabilities.
• Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has denied that Russia was involved in the malfunction of the aircraft’s navigation system.

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