The Minister Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation in Sofia Philip Voskresensky - the highest-ranking diplomat, among the 70 who must leave Bulgaria by July 3, announced that the country's consular services in Bulgaria have stopped working. The reason is that they are left without staff to do their job.

This means that thousands of citizens of the Russian Federation and Bulgaria, in need of consular services for travel, settling various issues, reuniting separated families, etc., will have to wait until the consular section in Sofia opens. The situation is complicated by the temporary closure of the consulate in Ekaterinburg, considered the capital of Siberia, announced yesterday by the Foreign Ministry.

Voskresensky explained to TASS that as a result of the actions of the Bulgarian authorities, which expelled all employees of the Russian Consulate General in Ruse, it was closed. Almost all employees of the Consulate General in Varna must also leave Bulgaria. The consular department of the Russian embassy in Sofia is also temporarily closed.

He clarified that among the declared persona non grata from Bulgaria are the Consuls General in Varna and Ruse - Vladimir Klimanov and Andrei Gromov, as well as the director of the Russian Cultural Information Center Yuri Makushin.

Voskresensky points out that together with their family members, a total of more than 200 people must leave Bulgaria by July 3rd. He did not answer an answer to a TASS question about Russia's response to the expulsion of diplomats, but did not hide that "diplomatic relations between the two countries have become seriously complicated."

Yesterday, in front of journalists in the parliament, Kiril Petkov surprisingly announced that Bulgaria will expel a plane full of Russian diplomats on Sunday because they are working against the interests of the country. "When foreign governments try to interfere in Bulgaria's internal affairs, we will clearly oppose them," he added.

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/Dnevnik