The Bulgarian foreign ministry on Friday said that it had given a Russian diplomat 72 hours to leave the country, after he was accused of spying and gathering military information, including about the number of US troops deployed there for exercises, over the last three years.
Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva reportedly received a letter from the country’s chief prosecutor saying that the Russian diplomat was engaged in espionage since 2017 but could not be charged due to having diplomatic immunity. Consequently, the ministry declared the official “persona non grata”, due to “actions incompatible with his diplomatic status”.
This is the sixth Russian official from Moscow’s embassy in Sofia to be expelled for spying since October 2019. In October this year, Russia, in a tit-for-tat move, expelled two Bulgarian diplomats nearly three weeks after two Russian embassy staff members in Sofia were asked to leave. Though Bulgarian officials have not publicly released the name of the diplomat in this latest incident, local news has identified him as Colonel Vasiliy Sazanovich, who was allegedly coordinating Russian military intelligence networks in Bulgaria. He had allegedly been in contact with a Bulgarian citizen, to whom he had offered monetary compensation in exchange for classified information.
The Russian embassy in Sofia reacted harshly to the accusations, arguing that the expulsion of its military attaché was groundless. “The unreasonable expulsion of the head of the representation of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation does not contribute to the development of dialogue between our countries in the military sphere or to the strengthening of stability in the Black Sea region,” it said.
However, Bulgaria’s NATO allies, the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK), extended support for Sofia and its efforts to protect its sovereignty and security. “As a close partner and strong NATO ally, [Britain] supports [Bulgaria’s] determination to defend its citizens, security, and sovereignty against malign threats,” the British ambassador to Sofia, Rob Dixon, wrote in a tweet.
“We have in recent weeks and months seen too many examples of Russian officials carrying out aggressive actions, from espionage in Bulgaria to poisoning opponents both at home and abroad,” the US Embassy said in a statement. The US is currently investigating a massive cyber-attack on multiple federal agencies and tech companies, which it suspects was carried out by hackers with ties to the Kremlin. Russia, however, has denied any involvement in the matter.
Bulgaria to Expel Russian Diplomat Accused of Espionage
This is the sixth Russian official from Moscow’s embassy in Sofia to be expelled for spying since October 2019.
December 19, 2020
Bulgarian PM Boyko Borissov (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) in Moscow in 2018. SOURCE: REUTERS via ARAB NEWS