Russia expels Bulgarian diplomat in tit-for-tat move

The Russian government has expelled a Bulgarian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move after Sofia declined a visa to Russia's incoming defence attache, Bulgaria's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

Bulgaria's ambassador in Moscow, Atanas Krastin, has been informed that the diplomat must leave Russia within the next 24 hours according to diplomatic protocol, the ministry said in a statement. Moscow cited the "principle of reciprocity", it said.

Bulgaria said in October it had declined a visa to the incoming defence attaché at the Russian embassy in Sofia, a day after expelling another Russian diplomat over spying allegations.

Bulgaria, a loyal ally of Moscow in communist times, is now a member of NATO and the European Union but retains close cultural and historic ties to Russia, which remains its biggest energy supplier.

Sofia did not join its NATO and EU allies in expelling Russian diplomats last year over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.