Russia: Bulgarian Embassy diplomat expelled after espionage
Pro-Russian protest in Bulgaria in September 2019 (Image illustration).
AFP - NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Russia expelled a Bulgarian diplomat.
This deputy military attaché from the Bulgarian embassy in Moscow has 72 hours to leave the country.
The Russian Foreign Ministry specifies that this is a retaliatory measure taken against Bulgaria's decision to expel the Russian military attaché in Sofia in mid-December.
For more than a year, the relationship between Bulgaria and Russia has continued to deteriorate.
Publicity
Read more
Several espionage cases have cooled the climate between the two countries, which until then had close political and economic relations.
Since October 2019, and the expulsion of a first Russian diplomat accused of espionage, the tone has been mounting.
After that, four more Russian diplomats and a technical assistant were expelled from Bulgaria, with Russia taking reciprocal action.
This time, Moscow is reacting to the dismissal in mid-December of a Russian diplomat suspected of spying on American troops stationed in Bulgaria, a NATO member country since 2004. The United States operates three military bases there on which exercises take place regularly.
After this expulsion, the US Embassy praised "
Bulgaria's efforts to protect its sovereignty
".
This decision had been qualified by Moscow as unfounded.
Poisoning cases
These cascading expulsions come on top of another affair that has contributed to deteriorating relations between the two countries.
Earlier this year, Sofia issued a European arrest warrant against three Russian nationals indicted for the poisoning of Emilian Gebrev, a producer and exporter of ammunition.
►
To read also: Between Russia and Bulgaria, the cloth is burning
The Bulgarian public prosecutor's office had initially considered that it was an accidental poisoning with insecticides, before changing version.
Bulgarian investigators are particularly interested in a Russian military intelligence officer, Denis Sergeev, considered the third suspect in another poisoning case in Novichok:
the Skripal affair
in the United Kingdom.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Russia
Bulgaria
On the same subject
Hello europe
Between Russia and Bulgaria, the rag is burning