Radev with his First Comment on the Leaked Recordings: The Services do not belong to the President

"Anyone who has the ambition to make any deep changes in the services must be fully aware that these services do not belong to the president, they belong to Bulgaria and are under the direct operational leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - in the person of the Prime Minister, not of the president. If you want to reform the services, you must know the laws of these services, the structure, tasks, functions, the way of cooperation of these services with foreign partners."

This is how Rumen Radev answered journalistic questions in connection with the leaked recordings from the National Council of the "We Continue the Change", where conversations about planned changes in the leadership of the services are heard.

According to Radev, the services have been seriously reformed and are making maximum efforts within the budget and resources at their disposal. He reminded that last year the management of SANS went to the USA at their invitation and received the "George Tenet" award, which is given only once a year, to only one service from all over the world. The award is given for "outstanding services and contributions to the national security of the United States, for exemplary cooperation in combating terrorism and strengthening democracy and its protection from malign influences." "And now these people want to decapitate this leadership, based on some embassies. This is absolute nonsense," said Radev.

According to him, the problem is deeper because it affects the moral foundations of the political class.

Regarding the phrase from the recording that "We Continue the Change" had between 7-10%, but they did "ala-bala through the president", Radev said:

"Ala bala is not my style. This is...