Putin's Homage to Cyrillic Makes Bulgarians See Red

А number of Bulgarian ministers and diplomats have condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for telling his Macedonian colleague George Ivanov on May 24 - the Day of Slavic Literacy - that the Cyrillic script came from Macedonia.

"The Slavic alphabet and literature came to us from Macedonian soil", Putin told Ivanov during the Macedonian President's visit to Moscow.

In response, Ivanov paid a tribute to the Slavic educators and saints, the brothers Cyril and Methodius, founders of the Glagolitic alphabet, which served as a basis for Cyrillic, who are "our spiritual teachers".

Bulgaria, which also celebrated the Day of Bulgarian Education, Culture and the Slavonic Alphabet on Tuesday, disagreed with this reading of history.

"The creation of literacy happened due to the will, and participation, of the Bulgarian state and it is hardly a coincidence that the Bulgarian ruler Boris I is present in all ancient Bulgarian books as Boris-Mihail - the Baptizer, who introduced the faith and literacy," Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterinaa Zahaieva wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.

"This is not only our holiday, and the Cyrillic script is shared. But it has to be known that we remember our history and we are proud of it," Zaharieva added.

Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, Krasimir Karakachanov - a nationalist and the author of several books on Macedonia, a land which Bulgarians nationalists have long laid claim to, also accused Putin of misinterpeting history.

"I am surprised that the President of the largest Slavic country is not familiar with the history of the Slavic nations. Russia, which talks about Slavonity, and about Orthodoxy, does not know history," Karakachanov told NOVA TV on Thursday.

Bulgaria's...