SOFIA, March 3. /TASS/. Foreign leaders were not invited to official celebrations of the 138th anniversary of Day of Liberation in Bulgaria, Bulgarian Foreign Ministry’s official spokesperson Betina Zhoteva told TASS on Thursday.

"Among participants in official celebrations are heads of diplomatic missions accredited in Sofia. Rumors about inviting the Turkish president are a crude manipulation and not consistent with reality," Zhoteva said.

Media earlier reported that Bulgaria invited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to celebrate the Day of Liberation from Ottoman oppression but did not invite Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier today that the Kremlin has not received an invitation from Bulgaria for Putin to attend the Day of Liberation of Bulgaria but respects this decision of a sovereign country.

Answering a question on how the Kremlin assesses the fact that Bulgaria did not invite the Russian president to attend the celebrations, the spokesman said that "this is a sovereign decision of sovereign Bulgaria." "We treat this absolutely normally and with respect, and, of course, we want our Bulgarian partners to really be free from any oppression and be sovereign in their actions and decisions to such an extent that they do not harm the interests of the country," Peskov noted.