Five Bulgarian Citizens Face Court in London on Charges of Spying for Russia
Five individuals suspected of spying for Russia appeared before a London court.
According to BBC reports, Bulgarians Orlin Russev, Bizer Dzhambazov, Katrin Ivanova, Ivan Stoyanov, and Vanya Gaberova are accused of conducting surveillance on people and locations on behalf of Russia from August 2020 to February 2023.
They were arrested by counter-terrorism police in February under the Official Secrets Act and were remanded in custody.
It is alleged that their surveillance activities were aimed at assisting Russia in hostile actions against various targets, including potential abductions.
During the Westminster Magistrates' Court hearing, they appeared via video link from four different prisons. All five remained silent except to confirm their names and birthdates.
Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram stated that the five suspects are to appear at the Central Criminal Court on 13 October.
All of them had been residing in the UK for several years, periodically changing their places of work and residence.
For instance, Russev, who had worked in the Russian business sector, moved to the UK in 2009. After spending approximately three years in the financial services sector, he established his own company specializing in "signal intelligence," which involves intercepting communications or electronic signals.
Bizer Dzhambazov and Katrin Ivanova, according to former neighbors, were a couple. The husband purportedly worked as an ambulance driver, while his wife was employed as a laboratory assistant at a private medical center.
The couple relocated to the UK ten years ago and established a public organization aimed at helping Bulgarians become more acquainted with "the culture and norms of British society," according to publicly available data from Bulgarian authorities.
According to the investigation, Russev organized and oversaw the spy operations from the UK, receiving assignments from a person known as Jan Marsalek, the former COO of the fraudulent fintech firm Wirecard. Marsalek is implicated in one of Germany's most significant financial crimes, involving fictitious transactions worth billions of euros without actual cash equivalents. Wirecard's former CEO is in prison in Germany, but Marsalek managed to flee the country.
In spring 2022, the Financial Times conducted an investigation revealing that Marsalek was living on the outskirts of Moscow, where he was being sheltered by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Since then, German justice has been seeking his extradition, but Russia has consistently refused to comply.