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Diplomats’ expulsion to worsen Bulgaria’s relations with Russia, says Duma committee head

Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borisov mentioned the intention to declare the Russian diplomats as personae non gratae on Saturday

MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/. The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry’s decision to expel two Russian embassy staffers as personae non gratae will complicate Sofia’s relations with Moscow and entail a proportionate response, the chairman of the State Duma’s international affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, told the media on Monday.

"A spy mania campaign in Bulgaria is expanding. This is not the first case of Russian diplomats being expelled on a far-fetched pretext over a very short period of time. I am certain that Russia will retaliate proportionately, the way it did in all previous cases," Slutsky said.

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Bulgarian Foreign Ministry declares two Russian diplomats as personae non gratae

He warned that "such steps seriously complicate bilateral relations and fuel Russophobic trends in European organizations without a reason."

Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borisov mentioned the intention to declare the Russian diplomats as personae non gratae on Saturday.

On Friday, the Bulgarian prosecutor’s office said the authorities acting with support from the EU and US detained six current and former staffers of the Defense Ministry and military intelligence on the suspicion of spying for Russia. On Monday, a district military court sustained the investigators’ request for remanding five of them in custody. Another suspect was released on bail, because the prosecutor’s office did not insist on his arrest.

The Russian embassy in Bulgaria demanded that all speculations on the case be paused until the court’s verdict. The embassy expressed the certainty that the "court proceedings will be conducted on a depoliticized, impartial and objective basis in strict accordance with Bulgarian and international legislation.".

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