© Velko Angelov
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The Government of Russia reserves the right to reciprocal, possible, asymmetric response of such extremely hostile actions. It is very unfortunate that the Bulgarian government is trying so hard to quarrel with the Bulgarian people. I think it will not succeed.” This was warned in a statement broadcast on Facebook by the Russian ambassador to Bulgaria, Eleonora Mitrofanova.
She specifies that from the evicted 70 employees of the Russian Embassy in Bulgaria, 34 are diplomats, and the remaining 36 people are her cookdrivers, embassy security, accountants, all technical services of the Russian diplomatic mission.
According to the decision announced on Tuesday (June 28) by Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, the 70 diplomats and employees of the Russian Embassy must leave Bulgaria by midnight on July 3. In addition, the Russian consulate general in Ruse is temporarily closed, and Bulgaria will temporarily close its consulate in Yekaterinburg. This is unprecedented in the relationship between the two countries for many decades. The decision made BSP to stop negotiations with “We continue the change” to form a new government.
According to Mitrofanova, the actions of the Bulgarian authorities “in no way correspond to the letter and spirit of the Vienna Convention”, as according to her they had not provided evidence of the illegal activities of Russian diplomats and officials.
“Simply announcing a persona non grata as a list is unprecedented and something new in diplomatic practice. Of course, this is not entirely new, because, as far as I know, it was done in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Now the game is played without rules”. Of course, this is at least an unprecedented hostile step, which, unfortunately, harms the long-standing diplomatic relations, the long-standing friendship between our countries,” the Russian ambassador noted.
She adds that she specifically used the word “countries” because she knew how the Bulgarian people treated Russia, “I know about the deep roots that connect us, which, no matter how hard you try, cannot be destroyed.”
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