Bulgaria Aims to Ban Soviet-Era Spies From Ambassador Posts
Bulgaria’s Cabinet approved a bill banning diplomats who served as secret police agents before the collapse of communism from holding ambassadorships or other senior foreign ministry jobs.
The bill, which has yet to be voted on in Parliament, will enable the Cabinet to recall the former spies, the Sofia-based government said in a statement today. President Georgi Parvanov, who is in charge of appointing ambassadors, rejected a Cabinet request to recall those identified as former agents.
A commission, set up in March 2007 to open the archives of the former State Security Committee, on Dec. 14 identified 218 ambassadors, deputy mission chiefs and consuls on its website who collaborated with the communist regime’s secret services between 1945 and 1989.
Foreign Minister Nikolai Mladenov this month ordered 13 ambassadors who were former spies, and were appointed to European Union capitals and international organizations including the United Nations, to return to Sofia until the new law is enacted and their assignments can be terminated.
Bulgaria in 2006 required the names of public figures who worked for the communist secret services to be published. The panel has since screened and found former communist-era spies among lawmakers, including Parvanov, and journalists.
To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Konstantinova in Sofia at ekonstantino@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Gomez at jagomez@bloomberg.net.
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