Six Bulgarians, found guilty of espionage in favor of Moscow and awaiting the amount of their punishment, are appearing before a London court today, Agence France-Presse reported.
Four men and two women were part of a spy network. They are Vanya Gaberova, Katrin Ivanova, Biser Dzhambazov, Tihomir Ivanchev, Orlin Rusev and Ivan Stoyanov, the agency said. They will find out what their punishments are after a few days of trial at the "Old Bailey" court in London.
Between 2020 and 2023, the Bulgarians carried out espionage operations in the UK, Austria, Spain, Germany and Montenegro, targeting particularly against Kremlin dissidents and journalists.
One of the group members named it “The Minions“ after the little yellow men from the animated series of the same name. In the likeness of these characters, the six defendants carried out their operations for the benefit of Russian military intelligence. Three of them contested their charges and the court found them guilty. Three others pleaded guilty.
During the investigation, police identified six operations by the spies thanks to an analysis of over 100,000 messages found on the “Telegram“ platform, used by Rusev, who directed the operations from his home in Great Yarmouth in East England. He received orders from Austrian Jan Marsalek, former COO of Wirecard.
Since fleeing Germany, where he is wanted by law enforcement, Marsalek has been in Moscow under a false identity, protected by Russian intelligence, according to a 2022 journalistic investigation.
Orlin Rusev received over 200,000 euros to finance his activities. After the group was arrested in February 2023, investigators found a lot of espionage-related equipment at his home, such as microphones and cameras hidden in a tie, a soda bottle, a stuffed toy, as well as software or kits for forging passports.
The group has specifically targeted Bulgarian journalist Hristo Grozev, who was investigating Russian intelligence. The group also targeted Roman Dobrokhotov, a Russian journalist and dissident based in the UK and founder of the website “Insider“. The group also targeted Bergey Riskaliev, a former Kazakh politician who was granted refugee status in the UK.
The group also monitored a US military base near Stuttgart in Germany, believing that Ukrainian soldiers were being trained there to operate “Patriot“ systems.
The group practiced espionage “on an industrial scale“ for Russia, said the head of the London police's counter-terrorism unit Dominic Murphy at the end of the trial, in which the defendants were found guilty, adding that he had never seen anything like it in his more than 20-year career.
In the UK, justice has been brought to justice in several cases of alleged espionage for Moscow. A 64-year-old man named Howard Michael Phillips was charged with aiding Russian intelligence and will go on trial in July.