The embassy‘s comments refer to a claim submitted by a Bulgarian media outlet whose publisher and Editor-in-chief maintain that the so-called Protest Network, one of the main entities formed during the 2013 summer protests against Plamen Oresharski‘s government, received illicit funding from the foundation.

The media outlet is thought to have ties to Delyan Peevski, a lawmaker whose appointment to the Bulgarian counter-intelligence body DANS opened the floodgates of 2013‘s mass protests, but it publisher consistently denies.