Bulgaria’s Prosecutor’s Office has collected evidence of intelligence activity on Bulgarian territory by two Russian citizens enjoying diplomatic immunity. One of them, who is accredited in Bulgaria as first secretary in the consular section of the embassy of the Russian federation in Sofia, searched for information about the mechanisms of the Bulgarian electoral process since 2017. The second person works at the Trade Representation of Russia in Bulgaria. From October 2018 until present, he collected information in the field of power engineering and energy security and sent this information to the headquarters of the Russian intelligence service in Moscow. The proceedings against them were suspended because of their diplomatic immunity and Bulgaria’s Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev informed this country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva about collected evidence of intelligence activity on Bulgarian territory.

The Russian Embassy in Bulgaria has not received any official information about the investigation against the two Russian diplomats, Russia’s Ambassador to Sofia H.E Anatoly Makarov told TASS agency.