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© Tsvetelina Belutova, Capital
Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria declared two Russian diplomats accredited in our country persona non grata and gave them 72 hours to leave the country. This is stated in a statement from the institution to the media.
“Today a note with this content was delivered to the deputy head of the Russian embassy,” the statement continues. Traditionally, it does not mention the names of those affected.
The Russian embassy reacted minutes later, saying that the expulsion was unfounded and that the country reserved the right to respond. “Unfortunately, we are forced to point out that this unfair management by the Bulgarian authorities will not contribute to building a constructive Russian-Bulgarian dialogue,” the statement said.
The statement from the Bulgarian institution states that “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received a letter from the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria indicating that the two diplomats carried out activities in the country incompatible with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”
This comes days after six people were arrested and charged with spying for Russia and leaking classified information to Bulgaria, NATO and the European Union. At a press conference, the prosecution appointed former and current military intelligence officers and senior officials from the Ministry of Defense.
Shortly before the announcement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there was a similar one from the prosecutor’s office, according to which Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev informed Chancellor Ekaterina Zaharieva today about the evidence gathered for intelligence activities incompatible with diplomatic relations between two citizens. Russians. They were picked up in the course of an investigation following a signal from the State Agency for National Security and pre-trial proceedings were initiated for crimes against the Republic of Bulgaria under art. 104, para. 1 and art. 109 of the Penal Code. It has also been established that they enjoy diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Another expulsion of diplomats
Today’s decision is another to expel Russian diplomats in the last year and a half since the fall of 2019. This is a sea change from the situation the previous year, when Bulgaria was one of the few countries to abstain from prosecute Russian diplomats for the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.
Through December A similar announcement was made about military attaché Vasily Sazanovich. Two months beforeFollowing a statement from the prosecutor’s office for diplomats, which worked to deliver official and state secrets about the Bulgarian military-industrial complex to Russian military intelligence, two more people were declared “persona non grata”.
Through January 2020 two people were expelled, one from the embassy and one from the sales office, on suspicion of espionage.
At the end of October 2019 A Russian diplomat, according to numerous publications, the first secretary of the mission in Sofia, was declared “persona non grata” (he is Vladimir Rusyaev, whose name disappeared almost at the same time from the embassy website). Russia responded in a mirror.
