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The decision of the Bulgarian authorities to expel the Russian diplomats will not go unanswered, it also damages relations between the two countries.
This was stated today to journalists in Moscow by the chairman of the commission for international relations of the State Duma Leonid Slutsky.
“Sofia’s handling of the expulsion of diplomats from the Russian Federation, of course, will not go unnoticed by Russia. It is regrettable that this is causing significant damage to Russian-Bulgarian relations,” said Slutsky.
He commented that Bulgaria has “filled the list of countries that inflate /…/ spy scandals against Russia.”
The position of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has declared two Russian diplomats accredited to Bulgaria persona non grata.
The Russian embassy was notified with a note. The two diplomats have 72 hours to leave Bulgaria.
Hours earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received a letter from the prosecutor’s office with a decree suspending pre-trial proceedings against the two diplomats who collected information that constituted a state secret in order to hand it over to a state. or foreign organization, a crime according to art. 104, para. 1 of the Penal Code.
Pre-trial proceedings against Russian citizens have been suspended because they enjoy diplomatic immunity.
The position of the Russian Embassy in Sofia
The Russian embassy also issued a press release that read:
On September 23 of this year, the Minister Plenipotentiary of the Russian Embassy in Sofia was invited to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he was given a verbal note declaring the employees of the Trade Representation “personaе non grataе” in accordance with the Article 9, para. 1 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.
No evidence was presented to confirm the implementation of an activity incompatible with its status.
Unfortunately, we are forced to affirm that the unjustified expulsion of the two Russian diplomats does not correspond to the traditionally constructive character of bilateral relations.
The employees in question will leave the country within the period specified in the note.
The Russian side reserves the right to respond with “mirror” measures.
