MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/. Moscow views the expulsion of two Russian diplomats by Bulgaria as a provocation and reserves the right to retaliate, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

"Indeed, on March 2, the Bulgarian authorities declared two diplomats of the Russian Embassy in Sofia personae non gratae," she said at a news conference. "We regard this step by official Sophia, taken on the eve of the sacred date for our common history, the anniversary of the liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman yoke as a result of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, <...> as simply a blatant provocation."

"The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures," Zakharova said.