SOFIA, December 18. /TASS/. The Bulgarian authorities have declared a Russian diplomat persona non grata, Russian Ambassador to Sofia Anatoly Makarov told TASS on Friday.

"We have received the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry’s note without further comments. We were told that he had to leave the country in 72 hours. The situation looks absurd. Russia reserves the right to take retaliatory action," Makarov said.

The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said earlier that the country’s prosecution had accused the Russian diplomat of espionage and he had been declared persona non grata.