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Bulgarian prime minister brushes aside death threats

Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boiko Borisov speaks during a session of the parliament in Sofia November 7, 2014. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov

SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov has received a letter with death threats, but said he was not worried and suggested the threats were result of his fight against corruption and smuggling. The anonymous letter that was sent to the government office, and contained Borisov's picture, a bullet and threatening messages, media reported on Monday. The government press office confirmed a threatening letter had been sent but declined further comment. "When you collect close to 3 billion levs ($1.69 billion) more from the smugglers, these are hurt interests in cigarettes, in liquor, sugar, meat ... when you stop public procurement orders for 1.7 billion and when every day you fire someone ... everyone has their cross to bear," Borisov told reporters. Borisov has ordered the cancellation of several big public procurement orders in the past week on different grounds, explaining that he did not want to leave even a sign of a doubt of possible corrupt practices. He formed a center-right government in November 2014 after almost two years of political uncertainty. Bulgaria ranks as EU's most corrupt country in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index and has been rapped repeatedly by Brussels for failing to combat rampant organized crime and jail high level officials. Earlier on Monday, police officials said they ordered security protection for Delyan Peevski, a member of parliament from the ethnic Turkish MRF party after information of a possible assassination attempt against him came to light while investigating a plot against a former security agent. Borisov dismissed any link between the threats against him and the deputy. ($1 = 1.7753 leva) (Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova; Editing by Alison Williams)