Rome, 1 September (LaPresse) – An alleged Russian interference attack against European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen disabled GPS navigation services at a Bulgarian airport and forced the European Commission President's plane to land using paper maps. The Financial Times reports that a plane carrying von der Leyen to Plovdiv on Sunday afternoon was deprived of its electronic navigation systems as it approached the city's airport, in what three officials familiar with the incident described as a Russian interference operation. ‘The GPS for the entire airport area went down,’ one of the officials said. After circling the airport for an hour, the pilot decided to land manually using analogue maps, they added. ‘It was undeniable interference.’ The Kremlin and the European Commission were contacted for comment. The Bulgarian Air Traffic Control Authority confirmed the incident in a statement to the Financial Times.
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