Three Bulgarian nationals have been found guilty of spying for Russia in the UK.
Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, all from London, were part of a group of Bulgarians who spied between 2020 and 2023.
The cell undertook elaborate surveillance on people and places targeted by Russia, including investigative journalists and a US military base in Germany, with members crisscrossing Europe from their base in the UK.
Their plans were laid out in thousands of messages exchanged between the cell’s leaders and recovered by police.
The messages included plots to kidnap and kill some of the group’s targets as well as plans to ensnare them in so-called honeytraps.
The trio were convicted of conspiracy to spy, while Ivanova was also convicted of possessing multiple false identity documents..
Fellow Bulgarians Orlin Roussev, 47, from Great Yarmouth, and Biser Dzhambazov, 43, from London, had previously admitted conspiracy to spy, while a sixth defendant, Ivan Stoyanov, 34, also admitted spying before the trial and his conviction can now be reported for the first time.
Key targets were investigative journalists Christo Grozev and Roman Dobrokhotov, whose work includes exposing Russia’s role in the nerve agent attacks on Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020 and Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018.
During the trial, prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said the spy cell was “sophisticated in their methodology; carrying out surveillance activity of individuals and places; manufacturing and using false identities and deploying advanced technology to acquire information”.
Roussev’s espionage base was a seaside guesthouse in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, which police say contained a “treasure trove” of spying gadgets and equipment, including cameras hidden in ties, a camera hidden in a fake rock, and glasses containing recording equipment.
