Bulgaria: The Russian Consulate in Varna has Closed its Doors

The building that housed the consulate of the Russian Federation on "Macedonia Street" in Varna for many years is closing, OFFNews reported. According to unconfirmed information, the contract with the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which owns the building, expires on November 1.

In the last one or two weeks, an active movement of cars and people was observed from the building, which is located about 100 meters from the municipality of Varna. For several days, the signs that informed that the Consulate General of Russia in Varna is located there have also been missing.

Confirmation of the closure of the consulate, which was left with severely reduced functions after Bulgaria expelled several dozen diplomats and administrative staff during the government of Kiril Petkov in July last year, was until a few days ago on the Facebook page of the service (the Russian consul in Varna was also on the expelled list).

On September 2, it was written that "On October 2, the Consulate General of Russia in Varna will stop receiving and issuing documents... We strongly advise you to follow the information on our site, as well as the information resources of foreign institutions for obtaining relevant information about the possible resumption of the work of the Consulate General in the future."

An OFFNews check established that the building on "Macedonia Street" in Varna has been private state property since December 2008. Then, with its decision (submitted on December 4, 2008), the Council of Ministers - at that time with Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev, i.e. the government of the Triple Coalition, has declared a property - public state property, provided for the management of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to a property - private state property, which houses the Russian consulate.

The argument is that "changing the property's status will allow the MFA to continue the lease with the diplomatic mission."

This is the second and last - apart from the Russian Embassy in Sofia, diplomatic office of Russia, which is closing in Bulgaria after the start of the war in Ukraine and the declaration of Bulgaria as a hostile country by the Putin regime. (There is currently only an honorary consul in Plovdiv - the businessman Georgi Gergov, reported OFFNews)

The consulate in Ruse closed its doors almost immediately after the "Petkov" cabinet declared the 70 Russian representatives in Bulgaria to be persona non grata.

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