Bulgaria has deported two Russian diplomats accused of military espionage and asked them to leave the country within 72 hours, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry announced on September 23rd. "The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has declared two Russian diplomats 'undesirable persons', and has informed the Russian embassy through a diplomatic note," said a Foreign Ministry spokesman.
State prosecutors have launched a case against the two suspects, at the request of the State Agency for National Security, which has suspected the two men of gathering state secret information about Bulgaria's plans to modernize its army.
The diplomats in question cannot be prosecuted because of immunity.
"Their purpose was to transfer the collected intelligence, including state secrets, to Russia's military intelligence in Moscow," prosecutors said.
The Russian embassy in Sofia has said it has no data to justify the "unreasonable punishment" of these diplomats.
"The Russian side reserves the right to take the same measures in response," the embassy said in a statement on Facebook.
"No evidence has yet been provided that proves they have been involved in activities that do not match their status," the statement said.
Bulgarian investigators have said that the spying, which took place from 2016 until now, involved funding to recruit Bulgarians who have access to sensitive information.
This is the fourth Russian espionage scandal in Bulgaria since September last year, and the third diplomatic scandal, in which members of the Russian Embassy in Sofia are declared unwanted and the release of Bulgarian territory is demanded. In Bulgaria, a large number of Russian spies, both under the guise of diplomats and clandestines, carry out espionage activities. Regarding this issue, the former Bulgarian Foreign Minister, Solomon Passy, had stated that more than 100 Russian spies are carrying out espionage activities in Bulgaria.
In the Russian Embassy in Sofia alone there are about 70 officials where a considerable part of them are part of the Russian intelligence services. There are also hundreds of employees in Russian companies and associations, some of whom are also members of the Russian intelligence services. The statement by former Foreign Minister Passy was made following accusations against Bulgarian politician Nikolay Malinov of espionage in favor of Russia.