British Court Convicts Six Bulgarian ‘Minions’ Of Spying For Russia

Six Bulgarians based in the UK, who jokingly referred to themselves as “minions”, were jailed for carrying out espionage operations including the surveillance of an investigative journalist.

By Svetoslav Todorov

Six Bulgarian nationals living in the UK were convicted on Monday at the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales in London for espionage in the interest of the Russian state.

The network, which engaged in a series of surveillance and intelligence operations between August 2020 and February 2023, was led by Orlin Roussev, who was sentenced to ten years and eight months’ imprisonment.

The other group members sentenced were Biser Dzhambazov (ten years and two months), Katrin Ivanova (nine years and eight months), Ivan Stoyanov (five years and three weeks), Vanya Gaberova (six years, eight months and three weeks) and Tihomir Ivanchev (eight years).

Before the group was formed, Roussev had been contacted by Jan Marsalek, an Austrian fugitive who in 2020 fled fraud charges in Germany, and according to investigators is probably hiding in Russia.

The spy ring engaged in sophisticated methods to carry out their activities, including manufacturing and using fake identities, making and adapting covert recording devices and deploying advanced technology to acquire information, the court heard.

“This was a high-level espionage operation with significant financial rewards for those involved in the spy ring,” Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, was quoted as saying.

The spy ring’s activity was linked to six operations. One of them was conducting surveillance of renowned Bulgarian investigative journalist Christo Grozev, who in 2022 was added to Russia’s ‘wanted’ list.

The spies closely monitored Grozev’s movements and provided information about his accommodation, his vehicle and his contacts. Encrypted chats between Roussev and Marsalek, which were provided as evidence, suggested that Gaberova had to act as a “honeytrap” for Grozev and start a romance to enable her to follow his activities.

The court found that the group also prepared a kidnap plot for UK-based Russia dissident Roman Dobrokhotov and followed former Kazakhstan politician Bergey Ryskaliyev, who also sought asylum in the UK.

The court further determined that they monitored and had a kidnap plan for lawyer Kirill Kachur, engaged in vandalising the Kazakh embassy in London in September 2022, and conducted surveillance on a US military base in Stuttgart from late 2022 until the group’s arrests in February 2023.

In March this year, two other women were accused in a BBC report of involvement in the spy ring’s activities. So far, neither has been charged.

The trial also attracted media coverage because the group referred to themselves as ‘minions’ – a reference to an animated Hollywood film – and because of the tangled personal relationships between three of the defendants.

Both Gaberova and Ivanova claimed that Dzhambazov deceitfully involved them in the espionage activities.

The case also gained attention in Bulgaria because the high-profile names of Bulgarian politicians mentioned in the chats with Marsalek as figures the spies have claimed to have contact.

They included President Rumen Radev, known for his softer positions on Russia and resistance to any further aid to Ukraine, and Korneliya Ninova, who was economy minister from 2021-22 and is a former leader  of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, a traditionally pro-Russian party.

In December, Ninova said that she never had contact with any of the defendants, while Radev commented that he expected Bulgaria’s security services to dispel the speculations that he might have been connected to them. However, if any probe was carried out, no details have been made public.

Leading political figures in Bulgaria have largely stayed silent on the case and have not commented on the charges.

In April, Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said that Bulgaria will not intervene in the case in any way because “criminal justice is carried out under the jurisdiction of the country where the crime was committed”.