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thigh was removed from his back on 26 September. Furthermore, anti-
bodies to ricin were found in Kostov's serum, suggesting that in contrast
to Markov, Kostov's recovery provided the time needed for antibodies di-
rected against the ricin in his system to develop. Kostov's recovery was
attributed to the possibility that he might have received a smaller dose
than Markov.
In the end, there was strong circumstantial evidence that Markov had
been killed by ricin, but the examiners admitted that they could claim no
more than that. Support for the claim came from another source. Oleg
Kalugin, a former KGB major general, who was in charge of counter-
intelligence in the Soviet Foreign Ministry from 1970 through 1979, was
stripped of his rank, his KGB decorations, and his pension after he broke
with the organization in 1990. In an interview in London, he denied
having anything directly to do with the Markov case, but implicated the
KGB in the affair. He said that Dimitur Stoyanov, Zhivkov's interior min-
ister, had asked the assistance of the KGB in the assassination of Markov.
Kalugin personally sent two KGB operatives to Sofia in 1978 to provide
Bulgarian secret service agents with dissolving poison pellets, concealed
in the tip of an umbrella that was configured to inject them.
25
He went on
to say that Stoyanov informed KGB officials that Zhivkov had ordered
Markov's murder, and that Yuri Andropov, the late Soviet leader, who
was the KGB director at that time, had approved the order. Oleg Gordiev-
sky, a former KGB station chief in London, confirmed that the KGB had
provided the poison pellet, which was manufactured in Moscow, and the
umbrella, which was modified by KGB technicians.
26
The assassin (whose
identity is still unknown) was supposedly supplied by the Bulgarians.
27
The inquest into Georgi Markov's death returned a verdict of unlaw-
ful killing. With nothing more in hand at the time, the Markov case
was closed. After the collapse of the Communist regime in 1989, it was
reopened by the new Bulgarian government, which brought charges
against Zhivkov and Stoyanov. However, the trial was in trouble from the
beginning. All pertinent Bulgarian documents concerning the case had
suddenly disappeared. The day before he was to give key testimony in the
trial, General Stojan Savov, who had been the deputy interior minister
under Zhivkov, committed suicide or was killed. Zhivkov, who was 80
years old at the time of the investigation, was said to ramble on in public
and show signs of being close to senility, so that nothing much could be
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