Resigned Prime Minister Kiril of Bulgaria announced this afternoon that 70 Russian Diplomats were identified by Bulgarian security services as “agents of foreign security apparatuses” , were working against the interests of Bulgaria, and will be expelled from the country by Sunday.

“I want to congratulate the services and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for having done their job,” Petkov said. “All those who work against the interests of Bulgaria will be recalled by our country,” he added.

“Most of them worked directly for foreign services. The diplomatic role was more of a cover, “Petkov said.

“These are 70 people – a large number. They were in official diplomatic positions. These are diplomats at the Russian embassy, ??we are not talking about people outside the Russian embassy. I was reported to have carried out unusual activities for these positions. This is not aggression against the Russian people. “When foreign governments try to interfere in the internal affairs of Bulgaria, we have institutions that will counteract,” Petkov said.

Russian state owned media reported that Russian Minister-Counselor Voskresensky, consuls generals in Varna and Ruse, and all diplomats and technical staff at the Consulate General in Ruse will be expelled. Russian Foreign Ministry Lavrov also told them that Russia “will respond” to the expulsion. Last month, the Russian Federation expelled nearly 200 diplomats from several Western countries such as Spain, France, and Italy in retaliation for the expulsion of Russian diplomats. However, this is the largest single expulsion taken by any country resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Bulgaria also expelled 10 diplomats from Russian in March.