Russia retaliates to Bulgaria, ousts 14 diplomats

Russia announced on Friday that it was dismissing 14 Bulgarian diplomats in response to Sofia's <x0-> decision unjustified” to expel Russian diplomatic personnel, while tensions between the two countries remain high after Moscow's offensive in Ukraine began.

The Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry in a statement issued on August 5th said it called Bulgarian Ambassador Atanas Kristin and handed him a letter writing that 14 Bulgarian diplomatic workers were declared the unwanted “@x1> in Russia.

Many European countries have expelled Russian diplomats after Moscow sent troops to Ukraine on February 24th, with Russia countering it in the same way, writes the REL.

Bulgaria in June announced that it was dismissing 70 people from Russian diplomatic staff -- the largest number expelled simultaneously from the Balkan country. Sofia also announced the provisional closure of Russia's General consulate in Bulgaria.

“We want to stress that responsibility for the consequences of these anti-productive steps is entirely due to Bulgaria's government,”, the Russian foreign ministry said.

“We believe that such actions not only cause significant damage to traditional ties between our countries... but also testify to further degradation of the West, which is willing to sacrifice partner interests to harm Russia,” is said in the statement.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine on 24 February, many Western countries imposed severe sanctions on Moscow. These measures include excluding several Russian banks from the bank transactions system “SWIFT”, an embargo on Russian exports, investment restrictions, asset freeze for government officials and their families, and a ban on travel for many senior Russian officials.