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Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev informed Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva today that two Russians with diplomatic immunity had collected evidence of espionage, the state prosecutor’s office said.
Pre-trial proceedings have been initiated in the Special Prosecutor’s Office for a crime against Bulgaria.
The two Russian citizens have been collecting information since 2016 on the modernization plans of the Bulgarian army and the maintenance of the technical suitability of the military equipment. The data, an official and state secret, was used for military intelligence in Moscow. The Russians have worked with Bulgarians with access to sensitive information related to the country’s military-industrial complex. The Bulgarians received adequate wages for their work.
The two Russians have been established as having diplomatic status. According to art. 31 point 1 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, despite the fact that there are reasons to attract them as accused of a crime under art. 104 par. 1 of the Penal Code, the criminal proceedings against the two were suspended for reasons of art. 25 par. 1 point 3 of the PPC – “the aggressor is a person with immunity”, according to the prosecution.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs told OFFNews that they have received the decree of the Prosecutor’s Office and will take measures in accordance with diplomatic protocol.
Later today, our Foreign Ministry declared the two Russian diplomats accredited to our country persona non grata. The Russian embassy was notified with a note. The two diplomats have 72 hours to leave the country.
On October 29 last year, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry declared persona non grata as one of the first secretaries of the Russian embassy in Sofia, accused of espionage, and gave him 24 hours to leave the country.
