Newsroom
A Russian-Cypriot businessman living in Limassol has been arrested in Bulgaria in connection with the catastrophic 2020 explosion at Beirut’s port, one of the most powerful non-nuclear blasts in history.
Igor Grechushkin, 48, was detained on September 6 at Sofia Airport after arriving on a flight from Paphos. He was wanted under an Interpol arrest warrant tied to the shipment of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that detonated in Beirut, killing 218 people and injuring nearly 6,000. The blast flattened parts of the city and left an estimated 300,000 residents homeless.
Authorities say Grechushkin, who has lived in Limassol with his family, was the owner of the Moldovan-flagged ship Rhosus. The vessel carried the ammonium nitrate from Georgia toward Mozambique before breaking down and unloading its cargo in Beirut in 2014. Lebanese officials declared the ship unseaworthy and seized the cargo, which sat improperly stored in the port for years until it ignited in August 2020, reportedly after a welding accident.
Bulgarian police confirmed Grechushkin did not resist arrest and cooperated with officers. A Sofia court has ordered him held for up to 40 days while Lebanon submits extradition documents.
The arrest revives questions about responsibility for the disaster. The ship’s captain, Boris Prokoshev, has also been named in an Interpol warrant but has insisted the blame lies with Lebanese port authorities. “For me, [Grechushkin] is guilty of abandoning the ship and not paying our wages,” he told reporters, “but the responsibility for the explosion lies entirely with those who managed the port.”
Grechushkin, who reportedly went bankrupt after paying heavy fines tied to the shipment, later settled in Cyprus with his wife and son. His detention marks the most significant arrest to date in the long-running quest for accountability over a tragedy that scarred Lebanon.
