Ivan Portnih stated that the attack against him was orchestrated to divert attention from the mayor of Varna, who is on trial for corruption. According to him, the accusations from the European Prosecutor's Office are politically motivated and aim to cover up the scandals surrounding Kotsev.
Portnih claims that he will present evidence of his innocence, including documents for the port project, which is the subject of the investigation. He accused PP-DB of being behind the signals against him and of using unfair means.
According to Portnih, the accusation is based on the claim that the port did not exist, which is untrue. He emphasized that the project has passed through inspections by various institutions, including OLAF, and no violations were found.
Portnih asked if it was a coincidence that “exactly today, on command, all PP-DB functionaries were activated to reheat the same story simultaneously.” He added that the accusations come on the first working day of the mayor on trial for corruption and before the protest against the budget.