Russia vows response to Bulgaria’s expulsion of diplomat
Russia has pledged to respond to Bulgaria’s expulsion of a Russian military attaché after Bulgarian prosecutors accused the diplomat of spying.
The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday that it had declared a diplomat from the Russian Embassy in Sofia persona non grata.
It added that the diplomat had been given 72 hours to leave the country “due to activities incompatible with his diplomatic status.”
The Russian diplomat is the sixth to be expelled by the NATO member country since October 2019 over allegations of espionage.
Bulgarian prosecutors said that the diplomat had been seeking sensitive military information, including on the number of US forces deployed in Bulgaria during military exercises since 2017, and had paid a Bulgarian national with access to classified information.
The Russian Embassy in Sofia revealed in a social media post that the measure concerned their chief military, air, and naval attaché.
The embassy said the allegation of espionage against the official was “groundless,” warning that it “does not contribute to the development of dialog between our countries in the military sphere, as well as the strengthening of stability in the Black Sea region.”
It added that Moscow reserved the right to take retaliatory measures.
In a statement issued on Friday, the US Embassy in Bulgaria backed the expulsion, which came at the end of a three-day visit to Bulgaria by NATO Special Operations Commander Lieutenant General Eric Wendt.
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