Breaking news… Prime Minister of the Bulgarian government, Kirili Petkov, who resigned yesterday, announced that they will deport 70 diplomats of the Russian Federation working in Sofia by declaring them persona non grata.
“We expect a Russian 70-capacity plane to take a full flight to Moscow on Sunday,” Petkov told reporters in parliament. said.
Stating that they will send back 70 diplomats, each of whom works in favor of foreign interests, Petkov said, “While most of these people were working for other information gathering services, they only used their diplomatic armor ‘as a cover’. We also take a clear stand when foreign governments attempt to interfere in our internal affairs. Our attitude is not an attitude towards the Russian people.” said.
TENSION IN BILATERAL RELATIONS
Since the beginning of Russia’s war on Ukraine, Bulgaria-Russia relations have come to a freezing point.
Russian Ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova compared Bulgaria’s struggle for sovereignty from the Ottoman Empire to the war Russia launched against Ukraine on the 3 March National Day, which celebrates the end of the Ottoman-Russian war and the 144th anniversary of Bulgaria’s independence.
Then, the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented Mitrofanova with a note containing a list of some diplomats declared persona non grata.
Despite the Russian Federation’s strong lobby in Bulgaria, Bulgaria has since 2021 expelled more than 10 Russian diplomats “for spying” in the country.
Prime Minister Kiril Petkov told reporters in April that while the number of Bulgarian diplomats in Moscow fell below 10, Moscow had at least 114 diplomats in Sofia.
The Bulgarian media claimed that after this move, which is expected to halve the number of diplomats in the Russian embassy, relations between the two countries are expected to be paralyzed. (AA)