Russian spies who were embedded in the UK are facing jail for carrying out espionage operations against Vladimir Putin’s enemies.
The group, led by 47-year-old Orlin Roussev targeted journalists, Russian dissidents, and even countries with close ties to Moscow in a three-year-old spying campaign.
Female members of the cell were deployed as ‘honeytraps’, while surveillance operations and intel gathering missions were launched in London, Montenegro, Valencia, Vienna and Stuttgart.
The group had ambitions for a Novichok-style attack, the Old Bailey heard, and had dreamed up elaborate plans to help Russia.
Roussev, his second-in-command Biser Dzhambazov, 43, and Ivan Stoyanov, 32, pleaded guilty to spying before a trial at the Old Bailey could begin.
Today, Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, his ex-girlfriend Vanya Gaberova, 30, and his new partner Katrin Ivanova, 33, were all convicted by a jury of being involved in the conspiracy.
Mr Justice Hilliard is set to sentence all six defendants at a later date.
Members of the secret spy cell were arrested in 2023, in one of the most significant exposures of espionage on British soil since the infamous Cambridge Spy Ring was busted in the 1960s.
Roussev and his cohorts are all Bulgarian nationals who had set up home in the UK, and are believed to have been directed by suspected Russian spy handler Jan Marsalek.
Marsalek, an Austria businessman, is suspected to have been recruited by the Kremlin a decade ago, and is currently one of the world’s most wanted men after the £1.5 billion collapse of payment processing firm Wirecard. The group were dubbed "the Minions" in a Whatsapp group from the cell’s leaders discussing their plans.
The trial focused on six operations carried out by the spy cell between 2020 and 2023.
Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said the group used “high-level“ and “sophisticated“ espionage tactics.
“Over a period of nearly three years, they sought to gather information for the benefit of Russia, an enemy of the UK - information about various targets, both people and physical locations, information of particular interest to the Russian state“, she said.
“Their activities caused obvious and inevitable prejudice to the safety and interests of the United Kingdom.”
Roussev lived in a guesthouse in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, while Dzhambazov had set up home in a flat opposite Lidl in High Road, Harrow, with Ivanova.
A treasure trove of spyware was uncovered in a raid on Roussev's operations centre in the former guesthouse - described in messages as his "Indiana Jones garage".
Among the haul were homemade audiovisual spy devices hidden inside everyday objects including a rock, men's ties, a Coke bottle and a Minions cuddly toy.
The trial heard detailed evidence of the tangled love triangle between Dzhambazov, Ivanova, and his former girlfriend Gaberova, who was living in a flat opposite Euston Station.
And jurors were asked to assess six “operations” which were carried out by members of the spy ring.
Bellingcat investigative journalist Christo Grozev was put under surveillance between September and November 2021, as a result of his work on a series of high-profile incidents involving Russia.
He had worked on stories about covert Russian State activities against opposition figures, and the downing of airliner MH17, the Malaysian Airlines plane show down over eastern Ukraine in July 2014.
Marsalek and Roussev swapped messages about placing operatives next to him on a plane, while there were also discussions about stealing his laptop and phone, burning his property, kidnapping him and taking him to Moscow, or even killing him.
Russian investigative journalist Roman Dobrokhotov became a target in November 2022, after he fled Russia as a dissident of the State.
The cell was also engaged in operations to try to bolster Russia’s relationship with Kazakhstan, which was friendly to Putin’s regime.
A plan was hatched to stage a protest at the Kazakh embassy in London in September 2022, including dropping pigs blood on to the building from drones, in order to lure out opponents of the country. The spies then believed they could gather intel on those who turned up to the protest, to hand it over to Kazakh officials on Russia’s behalf.
Perhaps the most serious operation involved surveillance at the Patch Barracks, a US Military base in Stuttgart in late 2022.
The military airbase was “believed by the defendants to be a location where Ukrainian forces were being trained in the use of surface to air weapons, at the very time of Russia’s invasion into Ukraine“, said Ms Morgan.
“The plan was to target the airbase using a range of highly sophisticated technology designed to capture key intelligence about those present on the base.”
When the spy ring was busted, police found a haul of technical equipment used for spying at Roussev’s home.
In total, the group had 221 mobile phones, 258 hard drives, 495 SIM cards, 33 audio recording devices, 55 visual recording devices, 11 drones, 16 radios, and three IMSI grabbers - pieces of equipment used to capture data.
They also had 75 passports and identity documents, including 55 in other people’s names.
Beautician Gaberova insisted at the trial that she had no idea Dzhambazov was a spy, and he had pretended to be an Interpol agent when they first met.
Ivanova, a lab assistant, said she was controlled and duped by Dzhambazov, and believed she was exposing corruption when she was tasked to follow Mr Grozev across Europe.
Mr Grozev had won awards for his work uncovering Russian involvement in the 2018 Novichok attack in Salisbury.
The court also heard how Dzhambazov is well-connected in his native Bulgaria, with close ties to those in political control.
He was naked in bed at ex-girlfriend Gaberova’s home when he was arrested, despite living with Ivanova at the time.
This led to a frosty atmosphere in the dock, as the two women sat just feet apart from each other as the details of their love triangle unfolded.
Ivanova, Gaberova, and Ivanchev, all denied but were convicted of conspiring to collect information intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy for a purpose prejudicial to the safety and interest of the state.
Roussev, Dzhambazov, and Stoyanov pleaded guilty before the trial began to the same charge.
Ivanova is also accused of possession of false identity documents with improper intention.
