Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry is following developments in connection with the arrest, in the UK, of three Bulgarian nationals for spying for Russia, the Foreign Ministry says.

• Three Bulgarians suspected of spying for Russia have been arrested and charged in the UK, the BBC reports

With regard to the fact that the Bulgarian embassy in London has not been notified of the arrests, Bulgaria’s ambassador to the UK and Northern Ireland Marin Raykov said, for the BNR:

“The practice in the UK is when citizens of another country, who have been taken into custody, want the institutions of their country not to be informed, then usually the British authorities respect their wish. I believe that this is the explanation why we have not been apprised.”

The Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office announced it has been working on the case of the three Bulgarians, jointly with the State Agency for National Security (SANS) since Mach 2023. Legal proceedings for espionage have been initiated.

• Russian court orders arrest of Bulgarian journalist Christo Grozev in absentia

According to bTV, investigative journalist Christo Grozev filed a report about the three in January – of assigning people to follow Grozev’s activities during the periods he has spent in the country. The people commissioned with this task have already been questioned.