The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has announced that it has expelled another Russian diplomat on suspicion of espionage, just two weeks after the Balkan country declared ten Russian Embassy officials persona non grata.

According to the announcement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this Russian official has carried out activities in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

"The Foreign Ministry handed over a note to the diplomatic official declared a non-woman, giving him a 72-hour deadline to leave Bulgaria," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The move followed a request from the Bulgarian Prosecutor's Office that the diplomat - First Secretary at the Russian Embassy in Sofia - was "involved in irregular intelligence activities" gathering "information of national importance".

Recall that last year, the State Agency for National Security of Bulgaria (SANS) in cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs had conducted the largest-scale operation to arrest Russian spies in the country since the end of World War II.

/ Telegraphy /