Bulgaria imposes EU entry ban on 2 suspected Russian spies

Bulgarian authorities on Monday imposed entry bans on two Russian nationals suspected of spying for Moscow’s foreign intelligence service.

Bulgaria’s State Security Service identified the men as Vladimir Nikolaevich Golotchkin, 39, and Tatiana Anatolyevna Golotchkina, 37, and banned them from entering the European Union country for five years.

The agency said in a statement that until recently, the couple had been living unnoticed in Bulgaria under the aliases Denis Rushkov and Diana Rushkova. The statement suggested they were no longer in Bulgaria, but did not elaborate on when they left the country or where they are believed to be now.

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The agency said the Russians were taking part in an operation orchestrated by Moscow’s Foreign Intelligence Service to infiltrate foreign countries using false identities. Their mission in EU member states was to obtain genuine Bulgarian identity documents and reliable biographical data supporting their authenticity, which could then be used for intelligence operations outside Bulgaria. It has been reported.

In September last year, five Bulgarians living in the UK were charged with spying for Russia. The three men and two women were indicted for “conspiring to collect information aimed at directly or indirectly serving the enemy (Russia)” between August 2020 and February 2023.

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In 2022, Bulgaria expelled 70 Russian diplomats in a move that seriously strained diplomatic relations between the two countries, which were close allies during the communist era. This is the largest number of Russian diplomats ever expelled by Bulgaria, a member of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Since Russia began its war against Ukraine, Bulgaria has been a strong supporter of Western sanctions against Moscow.