Bulgaria has expelled a Russian journalist for allegedly engaging in activities that pose a threat to the country’s national security, short-hand for spying. Moscow has promised retaliatory measures.
Journalist Aleksander Gatsak a correspondent for Russian state-run newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta,had been found to be performing „activity that poses a threat to Bulgaria’s national security,” Bulgaria’s State Agency for National Security said Wednesday in a statement.
He was stripped of his residency rights and barred from entering Bulgaria in September.
The agency said Gatsak was summoned Sept. 29 to receive the expulsion order at the Interior Ministry migration office, but he did not show up and instead took refuge inside the Russian Embassy in Sofia. He left Bulgaria on Nov. 1, authorities said.
„The actions of the agency aim to protect national security, not restrict freedom of speech and expression.”
Bulgaria’s BTA news agency cited Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova as threatening countermeasures for Gatsak’s expulsion, which she called “another unlawful move by NATO against Russian journalists”.
In September, Bulgaria expelled the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Sofia and two Belarussian priests, accusing them of having interfered in the country’s internal affairs.
Bulgaria is a member of the European Union and NATO and is a Slavic and Orthodox country with close historical and cultural ties to Russia.
But relations have been strained since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, with Sofia condemning the war and expelling 70 Russian diplomatic staff last year.
“The agency’s actions are aimed at protecting national security, not at limiting freedom of speech and expression of opinion,” the agency’s statement said.
