Bulgarian authorities announced this Thursday (21) that they had expelled a citizen from Russia and two from Belarus from the country on charges of espionage. According to the information, the three individuals were passing sensitive information about the country to Russian authorities in Moscow.
The citizens who were expelled were also working to “purposefully influence social and political processes in Bulgaria in favor of Russian geopolitical interests,” said a statement released Thursday by Bulgaria’s national security agency.
According to the statement, the three individuals “were deprived of the right to housing and prevented from entering Bulgaria for a period of five years”.
The statement did not provide further details about who these people were.
Through a publication on its official account on Facebook, The Russian embassy in Bulgaria, which is located in the country’s capital Sofia, said the expelled individuals were members of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The embassy reacted to the expulsions, classifying the Bulgarian authorities’ measure as “a rude and flagrant action”. They confirmed that the expelled Russian citizen was part of the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church in Sofia and the two Belarusian citizens were ministers of the Church of St. Nicholas of Myra.
“We are outraged by the fact and format of the decision taken by the Bulgarian side,” the embassy said in the publication.
“It is obvious that the current Bulgarian leadership has set out to destroy not only the socio-political, cultural and humanitarian ties between our states, but also to break relations between the sister Russian and Bulgarian Orthodox Churches, and to embitter the Russian and Bulgarian peoples against each other,” says the Russian embassy’s Facebook post. They further stated that “responsibility for the rapid degradation of bilateral cooperation [entre Rússia e Bulgária] it is entirely up to the Bulgarian side.”
According to information from American broadcaster ABC News, Bulgaria had already expelled 70 Russian diplomatic officials last year. A measure that, according to information, seriously damaged diplomatic ties between the two countries, which were close allies during the Soviet Union era.
Bulgaria is currently a member country of NATO and the European Union (EU). The expulsion of the 70 diplomats in 2022 was the largest in the country’s history.
Bulgarians have also strongly supported sanctions imposed by Western countries against Russia and criticized Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
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