(credit: nato.int) NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg previewed this week’s meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers at a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on Monday (22 March 2021)
By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES
NATO is closely following an investigation into alleged “Russian spy ring” in Bulgaria, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday. The NATO chief made the remarks in response to a journalist’s question during a press conference ahead of this week’s meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers at the Alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Earlier this month, the Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office said it brought espionage charges against six citizens, including servicemen and public servants, who allegedly transferred classified data to Russia. Authorities in the NATO member country uncovered an espionage group allegedly passing military secrets to Russia. Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said that his country is ready to declare Russian diplomats personae non-gratae. Prosecutors on March 19 charged six people, including former and current military intelligence officers, of passing classified information about Bulgaria, NATO, and the EU to the Russian Embassy in Sofia.
“We are, of course, following closely the Bulgarian investigation into the alleged Russian spy ring. NATO is always very focused on the protection of classified documents and classified information, and we fully support the work of our ally Bulgaria to tackle Russia’s malign activities on its territory. We will have this discussion with Finland, Sweden and EU High Representative, and this demonstrates that we are following closely the behaviour and the pattern of behaviour by Russia, and therefore we are also following closely the investigation by the Bulgarian authorities into the alleged Russian spy ring.”
-NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
NATO Sees Pattern of Russia Interference in Western Domestic Political Processes
“We have seen a pattern of more assertive behaviour by Russia over the last years, including aggressive actions against nations, Ukraine of course, but also interference in our domestic political processes, undermining the trust in our democratic institutions or attempts to do so, and also interference in our election processes,” Stoltenberg said.
President Putin “ultimately responsible” for all actions taken by Russian state
NATO “very concerned” about the reports about Russia, promising bounties for the killing of NATO soldiers in Afghanistan
“The relationship between NATO and Russia has been difficult for some time now, and that is a result of Russia’s behaviour, violating national law, using military force against neighbours; Georgia and Ukraine. But also, Russia is responsible for aggressive actions against NATO allied member states through cyber, interference in our domestic political processes, and so on. And this pattern of Russian behaviour over some years, has triggered the biggest adaptation of our Alliance, since the end of the cold war, with high readiness of our forces, with deployment of battlegroups in the eastern part of the Alliance, with increased spending, and also of course the fact that we are stepping up our efforts when it comes to cyber defence, but also clearly condemning the behaviour of Russia when they violate international law but also cracking down on peaceful demonstrators at home. And we see a pattern of aggressive actions abroad and suppression of peaceful dissidents at home. President Putin is of course, ultimately responsible for all actions taken by the Russian state. And we have seen a pattern of aggressive behaviour, including attempts and targeted killing of opponents, and in NATO, we are of course also very concerned about the reports about Russia, promising bounties for the killing of NATO soldiers in Afghanistan.”
-NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
