Petkov: The Decision for the Russian Diplomats was Not Mine Alone

"There is an interdepartmental report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and there is a decision of the Security Council, which was attended by the Ministers of Interior, Defense, Foreign Affairs, Deputy Minister of Finance, Minister of e-Government, Chief of Defense, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Interior, SANS, the chairman of Intelligence Agency director of Military Intelligence, head of the National Security Service, secretary of the Security Council and a representative of the presidential institution since June 9, 2022". This was stated by the resigned Prime Minister Kiril Petkov before the closed session in parliament, at which he was heard by the MPs for the expulsion of 70 Russian diplomats.

"There is an operational meeting of the Council of Ministers, where this was discussed, there is a long process that has taken place and which ended with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make the recall of diplomats yesterday". This was stated by Petkov after his hearing in the National Assembly.

"The idea of a one-man decision is another attempt at political maneuvers, but I hope that after today (29.06.2022) all deputies understood what happened", Petkov added.

"This is a process that started in March, we have notes from April, May, June, we had the Security Council with all the services that reported - SANS, SAI, Military Intelligence. Two things came out, it is a long process, secondly, many services were involved, thirdly, we are not in a normal situation at the moment, the war in Ukraine caused a new situation in the EU, especially since Russia declared Bulgaria an enemy state", Petkov said. "All of them focused on 70 people, in reality, the Russian embassy...