Bulgarian spies monitored a US military base in Germany where Ukrainian soldiers were training
Kyiv • UNN
Three Bulgarians are accused of spying for Russia over surveillance of a US base where the Ukrainian military trained. The group also planned to spy on investigative journalists and organize provocations.
A group of Bulgarians monitored a US military base in Germany where Ukrainian troops were training. This was one of six spy operations they conducted in favor of Russia, prosecutors told a London court on Thursday. This was reported by UNN with reference to Reuters.
Details
Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gabrov, 30, and Tikhomir Ivanchev, 39, are accused of being representatives of a spy network run by a Russian agent named Jan Marsalek, an Austrian citizen.
At the beginning of the trial in a London court, prosecutor Old Bailey Morgan told the jury that two other men, Orlin Rusev and Beezer Dzhambazov, admitted to participating in a spy plot.
According to her, the group carried out surveillance, used false identities, used advanced technologies and compiled detailed reports in exchange for significant amounts of money.
They operated under the guidance of Rusyava, who himself received instructions from Marsalek, who used the fictitious name Rupert teach. As noted by Reuters, Marsalek is the former Chief Operating Officer of the bankrupt payment company Wirecard, and his current whereabouts are unknown.
Ivanova, Gaberova and Ivanchev deny charges of conspiring to collect information useful to the enemy between August 2020 and February 2023. Ivanova also denies having a fake passport.
Morgan told the jury that the spy group was involved in six key operations, including in late 2022 tracking patch barracks in Germany, a U.S. base near Stuttgart where Ukrainian troops were trained to use surface-to-air missiles.
Other alleged operations included surveillance of Hristo Grozev, a Bulgarian national who worked for the investigative website Bellingcat and was the lead investigator in the 2018 poisoning reports of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.
According to Morgan, Rusev and Marsalek exchanged messages about Grozev in 2021, discussing the possibility of setting up surveillance on him or stealing his computer and handing it over to the Russian Embassy.
"They even discussed the possibility of abducting him and taking him to Russia or killing him," she added.
According to Morgan, the group also targeted Roman Dobrokhotov, a Russian who lives in Britain and is the editor-in-chief of the Insider magazine, Bergey Ryskaliyev, a former Kazakh politician who was granted asylum in Britain, and Russian dissident Kirill Kachur.
According to Morgan, the sixth operation involved organizing a demonstration outside the Kazakh Embassy in London to create the appearance that they have data on those responsible, which they will pass on to Kazakh intelligence in order to win Kazakhstan's favor on behalf of Russia.
addition
Britain's relations with Russia, which are already at its worst in decades due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, have worsened further after recent reports that Kiev used British long-range missiles on Russian territory.
On Tuesday, Russia expelled a British diplomat whom it accused of espionage, and in October, the head of British intelligence accused the Russian special services of trying to create "chaos".
