At present, there is no question of a complete severance of diplomatic relations between Russia and Bulgaria; this would not meet the interests of the peoples of the two states. This was announced on Tuesday, February 14, by Yuri Pilipson, director of the fourth European department of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“Of course, our foreign missions in Bulgaria are experiencing difficulties in their work due to a lack of staff. There are problems in consular services, and as a result, both our compatriots and Bulgarian citizens who apply for consular services face inconvenience,” he said in an interview. “RIA News”.
As the diplomat noted, the track record of Sofia’s unfriendly actions towards Moscow is long.
He pointed out that the Bulgarian leadership is often in the forefront of the Russophobic campaign of Westerners. At the same time, Pilipson stressed that today the question of a complete severance of diplomatic relations between the countries is not on the table.
“We are convinced that such a scenario would not meet the fundamental interests of our peoples. Sooner or later responsible, unbiased leaders will start to set the tone in Bulgaria, and then we will be able to return to pragmatics,” he said.
The diplomat said that for the time being Russia would continue to adequately respond to Bulgaria’s anti-Russian attacks with the help of symmetrical or asymmetric measures. He drew attention to the fact that “initiative unsubstantiated expulsion of diplomats” of other countries is not included in the practice of Moscow.
On June 28, 2022, it became known that Bulgaria was expelling 70 diplomats and technical staff of the Russian embassy from the country. This was motivated by the fact that they allegedly worked for the special services.
On July 4, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the diplomats were expelled without any reason or any attempt to justify these actions. In addition, commenting on the support of Sofia by the European External Action Service, she noted that it is important for EU officials to demonstrate solidarity against Russia at any cost.
In response to Sophia’s actions, Moscow decided to expel 14 employees of the diplomatic department.
On February 2, 2023, Pavel Kandel, a leading researcher at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in an interview with Izvestia, said that after the start of a special operation to protect Donbass, most parties in the Bulgarian parliament took an anti-Russian position. He noted that only the small and relatively unpopular Voskhod and Vozrozhdenie parties favor Moscow. In his opinion, this is not enough to improve relations, we can only expect more active participation of Sofia in anti-Russian actions.
