Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry declares a Russian diplomat as persona non-grata

Bulgaria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on December 18 declared a diplomat from the Russian Embassy in Sofia a persona non-grata and gave him 72 hours to leave the country due to actions incompatible with his diplomatic status.

A note with this content was handed to the Deputy Head of the Diplomatic Mission, who was summoned to the Foreign Ministry building.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva received a letter from the Prosecutor General, Ivan Geshev , stating that pre-trial proceedings had established how the diplomat in question had collected information constituting a state secret. The act in question constitutes a crime under Art. 104 para. 1 of the Criminal Code. As the perpetrator enjoyed immunity under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the pre-trial proceedings were terminated.

According to BNT sources, the Russian diplomat accused of spying is Colonel Vasiliy Sazanovich. He coordinated the GRU's (Russia's military intelligence ) spy network in Bulgaria.

At the signal of the State Agency for National Security, the Specialized Prosecutor's Office instituted pre-trial proceedings for a crime against the Republic of Bulgaria - that a foreign citizen had collected information constituting a state secret for the purpose of providing it to a foreign state or organization (104, para 1 of the Penal Code).

In the course of the investigation of the pre-trial proceedings it was established that in the period from 2017 to the present, another citizen of the Russian Federation has carried out intelligence activities, during which military information was collected, incl. for the number of US servicemen stationed on the territory of Bulgaria during exercises. The aim was to pass on information, a state and official secret, to Russian military intelligence in Moscow. In order to carry out his illegal activity, the Russian citizen had contacts with a Bulgarian citizen who had access to the relevant classified information. He was promised and granted financial benefits.