PM Kiril Petkov rejected accusations that the decision to expel 70 Russian diplomats was his alone

Outgoing Prime Minister, Kiril Petkov, and the heads of the State Agency for National Security (SANS), Military Intelligence and the State Intelligence Agency (SIA) were heard this evening, June 29, at a closed sitting of Parliament in connection with the expulsion of the 70 Russian diplomats from Bulgaria.

Kiril Petkov urgently went to the National Assembly because the MPs wanted to hear his reasons for the decision to expel the diplomats. Before the closed sitting, the outgoing Prime Minister explained that the decision was not his alone.

Kiril Petkov - outgoing PM: "Two things came out - first, that this is a long process, second, that a lot of services were involved in this task. And the third thing is that we are not in a normal situation at the moment, you know the war in Ukraine caused a new situation in the whole EU, especially since Russia had declared Bulgaria an unfriendly country, but the other thing that also came out - everybody focused on the 70 people who are leaving, but actually the Russian embassy still has over 40 employees, which actually is a large number compared to many European countries."

"This hearing has once again shown what a mess the state is in. It was not at all clear who makes the decisions in the Council of Ministers, in the Security Council. Kiril Petkov is trying to hide behind Foreign Ministry officials, behind some reports," said Desislava Atanasova of GERB-UDF.

"It has become clear that this has been discussed in various institutions, i.e. it is not at all about some single decision that was taken just like that. It became clear that this information was sent to the Foreign Ministry. After all, the Foreign Ministry is the institution which, in accordance with normal diplomatic practice, took this decision. That is, I personally saw a job well done," said Hristo Ivanov, co-chair of “Democratic Bulgaria”, a partner in the outgoing coalition government.

"I heard absolutely nothing specific. When I say nothing, I mean exactly that. This is just a complete farce, once again American servitude," said Kostadin Kostadinov, leader of "Vazrazhdane".