Bulgaria has suspended Aleksandr Gatsak, a Bulgarian correspondent for Rossiyskaya Gazeta, declaring him a threat to national security and banning him from entering and staying in the EU.
Moscow called the move illegal and promised to retaliate. On Wednesday, the State Agency for National Security (SANS) said:
“Gatsak was summoned on 29 September to be served with the expulsion order, issued on 20 September, at the Ministry of the Interior, and later at SANS. The Russian citizen refused to appear at the Bulgarian state departments and was hiding in the territory of the Embassy of the Russian Federation.”
The agency sought the assistance of the Foreign Affairs Ministry. The announcement states, adding that the actions of SANS are not directed against freedom of speech but comply with the legislation of Bulgaria and the EU, as well as pan-European democratic norms and values:
“The person left the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria on November 1, 2023.”
Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, commented on Bulgaria’s decision:
“Russia will take response measures against the actions of the Bulgarian authorities against the correspondent of Rossiyskaya Gazeta in Bulgaria. This is another illegal move against Russian journalists by NATO members who are maniacally chasing us.”
Earlier, TASS reported that the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry cancelled Gatsak’s accreditation without explanation and threatened him with expulsion. Meanwhile, Bulgarian National Radio reported that its correspondent Angel Grigorov, the only representative of Bulgarian public media in Moscow, had been summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry. However, there has been no comment on this yet. An article on Grigorov’s expulsion published in Rossiyskaya Gazeta, said:
“Gatsak has been working in Sofia for several years and constantly publishes materials on the domestic and foreign policy issues of this Eastern European country.”
The article also describes the expulsion of Archimandrite Vassian, head of the Russian Church in Sofia. He and other officials of the church were expelled from the country in September as a threat to Bulgaria’s national security. The Russian embassy then closed the church in the centre of Sofia, which has a 1997 notarial certificate stating that it is the property of the Russian embassy.
The prosecutor’s office investigated and found violations of the law, leading acting chief prosecutor Borislav Sarafov to ask Regional Development Minister Andrei Tsekov on Wednesday to open a case on state property.
Bulgaria expelled 70 Russian diplomats last year, severely straining diplomatic relations between the two countries, which were close allies during communist times. It was the largest number of Russian diplomats ever expelled by Bulgaria.
