site.btaBulgaria Has Not Made Decision to Expel Russian Diplomats - Foreign Ministry

Sofia, March 24 (BTA) - Bulgaria has not made a decision to expel Russian diplomats over the Skripal case, the Foreign Ministry's press centre told BTA Saturday.

The statement comes in response to an article published by British daily "The Times", according to which the US and up to 20 European countries, including Bulgaria, are preparing to expel Russian diplomats connected to Russian espionage networks.

GERB deputy leader Tsvetan Tsvetanov also denied the allegations that Bulgaria is considering the expulsion of Russian diplomats. Speaking in the coastal town of Pomorie on Saturday, he said that the competent authorities take actions when national security is threatened, but currently there is no information that would prompt the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Bulgaria. As a member of the European family, Bulgaria shows solidarity with the joint EU position on the matter, he went on to say.

Speaking to Bulgarian journalists Friday in Brussels, where he attended a European Council meeting, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said that Britain claimed there was "high probability" that Russia was behind the nerve attack on the Skripals. Meanwhile, Borissov has asked for more evidence. "We all back Britain's position," he said. The phrase "high probability", however, contains the word "probability", meaning there may be some other probability. "This is the joint decision and we support it," he said, referring to the EU's support for Britain.

According to London, former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, who was living in the UK following a spy swap with Russia, and his daughter Yulia, were poisoned on March 4, 2018 in Salisbury with a nerve agent. The British authorities said that this agent was developed in Russia and accused Moscow of being involved in the attack. The Russian authorities adamantly denied this, noting that there were never any programmes for the development of such a nerve agent in neither Russia or the Soviet Union.