“A few years back I warned President Putin, at the time premier Medvedev was here, that on the territory of Bulgaria I do not tolerate things like that,” said Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, commenting on the fact that two Russian diplomats accredited to this country were declared persona non grata. He stated that the State Agency for National Security and the prosecutor’s office were sufficiently well-informed of the espionage activities of the Russians.

From Hemus motorway where he was inspecting the construction work, the Bulgarian prime minister also commented on his relations with President Rumen Radev, whom he described as “a political player now”. In his words the Bulgarian head of state is “very definitely politically tinted – whether it will be in the direction of a new political party, or of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, or the Movement for Rights and Freedoms who elected him, but certainly not in the direction of GERB.”