site.btaForeign Ministry Declares Two Russian Diplomats Persona Non Grata

March 22 (BTA) - The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has
declared two Russian diplomats persona non grata and has given
them 72 hours to leave the country, the Ministry said on Monday.

The move was prompted by the diplomats' involvement in
"activities incompatible with the Vienna Convention on
Diplomatic Relations".

On Monday a note was handed to the deputy chief of the Russian
embassy here.

The Foreign Ministry has been alerted about the activities of
the two diplomats by the prosecution service.

The expulsion decision follows the detention last Thursday of
six persons on suspicion of spying for Russia, five of whom are
former or current Bulgarian defence officials and military
intelligence officers and the sixth is a woman of Bulgarian and
Russian citizenship. Russia responded to the news of the arrests
with a comment saying that it was being demonized and that it
expected all allegations of a Russian connection to stop before
the court rules on the case.

In a fresh comment on Monday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister
Alexander Grushko said, as quoted by TASS, that if Bulgaria
decided to expel Russian diplomats, his country would respond
with the same step.

In a Facebook post the Russian Embassy said that "yet another ungrounded demarche of the Bulgarian authorities won't contribute to the advancement of a constructive Russian-Bulgarian dialogue". The Embassy adds that Russia has reserved its right to take tit-for tat measures. RI/PP/LN/

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