Two Bulgarian diplomats to be expelled from Russia

As the Foreign Ministry clarified, this step was a response to Sofia's unmotivated decision to declare two employees of the Russian Embassy persona non grata.

"On April 20, the Ambassador of Bulgaria Atanus Krystin was invited to the Russian Foreign Ministry, where he was handed a note from the ministry declaring persona non grata of the first secretary of the consular service of the Bulgarian embassy in Russia N. Panayotov and the first secretary of the service for trade and economic issues of the Bulgarian embassy in Russia Ch. Khristozov", - indicated in the ministry.

Earlier, the Prosecutor General's Office of Bulgaria reported that pre-trial proceedings had begun against citizens suspected of spying for the Russian Federation. The report says that the two Russians were engaged in "unregulated intelligence activities".

According to an investigation by the Bulgarian prosecutor's office, they collected materials on details concerning the NATO coordination center in Varna, the alliance's operations and decisions taken in various committees of the organization.

Prior to that, the Russian embassy indicated that they were counting on the depoliticization of the espionage case in Bulgaria, as well as the cessation of speculation about the involvement of the Russian side.

This is not the first expulsion of Russian diplomats from Bulgaria; similar messages from this country come quite often. At the end of last year 2020, Bulgaria expelled a Russian diplomat, suspecting him of espionage. Prior to that, in September 2020, Bulgaria also expelled two Russian diplomats newly suspected of espionage. According to the local prosecutor's office, for four years they have been collecting information about "plans to modernize the Bulgarian army and equip military equipment".