Outgoing Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov on Tuesday announced the expulsion of 70 Russian diplomats — many of them spies using diplomatic cover — for interfering in the Balkan country’s domestic affairs.
The move is an unprecedentedly decisive step against the Kremlin in a country where ties to Moscow run deep.
Petkov, who attempted to chart an unusually pro-NATO and transatlanticist course after the invasion of Ukraine, has complained that the Russians — along with Bulgaria’s own sometimes Moscow-linked mafia — helped topple him in a vote of no confidence last week.
“On Sunday, we expect a full plane with 70 seats to head off back to Moscow,” he told TV reporters in Sofia.
