Todor Zhivkov to 1988, Bulgaria won an unprecedented 153 Olympic medals and numerous European and world competitions in sports as diverse as volleyball, rhythmic gymnastics and wrestling. Dissent was punished under Zhivkov's rule. The CSS was a feared tool of control, and overt opposition largely stayed underground until the late 1980s. In 1978, the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was assassinated in London by an agent who stabbed him with an umbrella tip which implanted a very small ricin ball. According to former KGB general Oleg Kalugin, this was requested by Zhivkov and either performed by the KGB or it assisted the CSS;
Bulgarian umbrella Executioner". A type of this umbrella is used even in poliziottesco Italian movie The Police Can't Move in 1975. A Bulgarian umbrella was featured in the 2013 "The Americans" episode, "The Clock". A similar assassination (and attempt) were central to the plot of the 1978 "Quincy, M.E." episode, "Hot Ice". The 2010 episode "Marionette" of "Fringe" begins with an organ thief administering a paralytic with an umbrella. In the AMC series Breaking Bad, season 2, episode 2, Walter White shows his accomplice, Jessie, a small bag of castor beans which he explained, the ricin can be extracted and which was