Azerbaijan state airline company was regularly transporting tons of cheap Bulgarian and East European weaponry to Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Turkey, under diplomatic cover as part of the CIA covert program. These weapons were found inside underground terrorist warehouses belonging to Al Nusra Front, Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria designated as a terrorist organization by the UN. The US modus operandi was the same: using bases in the satellite countries, abuse of diplomatic channels, and dirty politics directed against Russia, Iran and Syria.
In December 2016, a Bulgarian investigative journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva was among the first reporters who visited liberated neighborhoods of the eastern Aleppo. There, inside underground terrorist warehouses belonging to Al Nusra Front (Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria designated as a terrorist organization by the UN), she found weapons manufactured at the Bulgarian arms factory VMZ-Sopot, along with other weaponry of German and American origin. Furthermore, the large amount of accompanied documentation found in these arms storages provided details about manufacturers' and transporters' names. The Russian Foreign Ministry immediately sent an official protest to the governments of these countries, while further clarification was sought from the Bulgarian authorities.