Bulgaria’s ambassador in Washington, Luchezar Petkov, had resigned, President Georgi Purvanov confirmed on December 1 2009.
 
Petkov’s resignation followed the announcement on November 13 that the ambassador in Ankara, Branimir Mladenov, had resigned.
 
Both had been at the centre of a standoff between Boiko Borissov’s Government and President Georgi Purvanov. Borissov wanted the two ambassadors to step down because of alleged irregularities at voting stations in the US and Turkey during Bulgaria’s July 2009 national parliamentary elections.
 
Purvanov, speaking after a December 1 meeting with Borissov and National Assembly Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva, said that the decrees confirming the withdrawal of the two ambassadors would be prepared on December 2 or 3.
 
"The most important thing is who will replace them, because these are states with which we have strategic interests," Purvanov said.
 
The Cabinet's decision to recall the two ambassadors earlier caused a public dispute between Purvanov and Borissov.
 
After Foreign Minister Roumyana Zheleva and the Cabinet sent a request to Purvanov’s office to withdraw the ambassadors, Purvanov said that he had not been informed in detail about the two ambassadors' violations and could not sign a decree which was sent to his administration at the last moment "on a Friday (November 6) afternoon".
 
If the two ambassadors had broken the law, Purvanov said at the time, he would sign the decrees recalling them, but he wanted more information.
 
Meanwhile, as the saga dragged on, Zheleva made it clear to the two ambassadors that they did not have her support.
 
On November 8, Purvanov indirectly criticised Borissov and his Cabinet in public for lack of vision and clear priorities in running the country.
 
A day later, two parties that have so far backed the Cabinet, but are not part of the government, raised the question whether Purvanov should face impeachment for his actions over the past eight years and the fact that he used to work for the communist-era secret service.
 
Borissov said he did not want a confrontation, but he had to support the talks about the legal grounds for a motion for Purvanov's impeachment. The President's response was that he was ready to face the process and that he was not afraid of it. Borissov, however, soon afterwards made it clear that he did not believe that it was appropriate to be seeking the impeachment of Purvanov.