A Russian spy ring organized “high-level intelligence” including stealing honey from UK targets, the Old Bailey heard.
Five Bulgarians planned a series of “operations”, which involved a detailed investigation of a US air base they believed was being used to train Ukrainian soldiers.
Members of the gang even discussed kidnapping one of their targets and taking him to Moscow or killing him, the court heard.
Ringleader Orlin Roussev, 46, and Bizer Dzhambazov, 43, have already admitted that they conspired with a spy and a Russian diplomat using the name “Rupert Ticz”, accused by prosecutor Jan Marsalek, from Austria, between 2020 and 2023.
Orlin Roussev, 46, and Bizer Dzhambazov, 43, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy with a Russian diplomat.
Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, all deny the same charge. The lawyers felt that this case has three aspects of love as all the women were in love with Dzhambazov.
Alison Morgan KC, prosecuting, said they used “sophisticated” surveillance of people and places, including “creating and using false identities and deploying advanced technologies to access information”.
They were paid “huge sums of money” and evidence shows hundreds of thousands of pounds went to the rings.
When they were arrested, they were found with 221 mobile phones, about 500 Sim cards, many recording devices, 11 drones, three IMSI grabbers – which can be used to capture data from devices being used nearby – 91 bank cards and 75 passports.
Marsalek, who “can best be described as a Russian agent” and “acted as an intermediary for the Russian intelligence services”, installed Roussev’s job, the court heard.
He then passed the orders on to other Bulgarians and Dzhambazov ran the operation down, it was reported.
Jan Marsalek is an Austrian who ‘can best be described as a Russian diplomat’.
One of the six actions that will be explained before the judges will be the observation at Patch Barracks, a US military base in Stuttgart, Germany, in late 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“The reason it’s interesting to Russia is that it’s believed to be a place where the Ukrainian military is being trained by the US military,” Ms Morgan said.
“So the idea was to go to the base and gather the most information using the most advanced technology to know who is on the base and get as much personal information as they can about the people inside the base.”
They planned to use “cellular network interception devices”, which are “high-level security devices”, he added.
There are about 80,000 messages between Roussev and Marsalek, who Ms Morgan said “constantly refers to different parts of the Russian intelligence services”, including the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. [GRU]the Federal Security Service [FSB] and the State Security committee [KGB] and referring to Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia.
Another operation involved targeting Christo Grozev, who was Bellingcat’s senior Russia analyst.
He is considered a dissident by the Kremlin as his work includes exposing Russia’s ties to the 2018 Salisbury attack, the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader, events related to the downing of MH17, the Malaysian Airlines plane that was shot down over Ukraine in 2014, and the activities of intelligence agencies.
Mr. Grozev was informed in 2022 by the Austrian authorities that information was being collected about him in Russia and threats against him are seen as he is living away from his family.
Around the same time, the Bulgarians followed Mr Grozev in Montenegro, Valencia in Spain and Vienna in Austria, passed this information to Marsalek and discussed the “tactical options” that could be used against him.
‘Espionage’ and ‘deception’
Marsalek and Roussev discussed stealing his laptop or phone and taking it to the Russian Embassy, burning his property, putting him under surveillance, kidnapping him and taking him to Moscow or killing him, and breaking into Bellingcat, the court heard.
They placed him under surveillance, which began in late July 2021 and included checking his home and mapping his movements and activities.
The evidence, which will be heard during the trial and is due to take place until February, shows “a number of highly insidious espionage”, it is said.
“They were in close proximity to the targets, following them in flight, considering the possibility of direct contact, for example with female suspects being used as a ‘honey trap’, as sexual bait to get more information from the targets,” Ms. Morgan explained.
“It was very dangerous and it was very difficult. The accused got a lot of money for what they were doing.”
The court heard that the defendants at the Old Bailey could try to use their relationship as a defense against the conspiracy charge.
Both Mrs. Ivanova and Gaberova were in love with Dzhambazov, and Mr. Ivanchev and Gaberova were once in love.
Bizer Dzhambazov, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy with a Russian diplomat, and Katrin Ivanova, who has denied involvement
Mrs Morgan said: “They may, in different ways, seek to trust their relationship in some way to show that they were misguided in some way, or that they were following others blindly or simply following others to Europe out of love or devotion.
“The prosecution’s case is that they were involved in this matter knowingly. This is not the kind of action you do just because of a romantic relationship.”
Ms Morgan said that even if the defendants were “financially motivated” and did not share “Russian views” or “support Vladimir Putin” they could still be held guilty if they knew what they were doing was to help Russia.
The group is said to have also planned a demonstration outside the Kazakh Embassy in September 2022 “to lie that they have real intelligence about those responsible” so they can pass it on to the Kazakh service “to gain the favor of … Russia”.
They targeted Bergey Ryskaliyev, a former Kazakh politician who has been accused of “political corruption”, Roman Dobrokhotov, the editor of the Russian investigative news site The Insider, and Kirill Kachur, a Russian lawyer.
Katrin Ivanova denies having fake credentials including international passports – LinkedIn
“They were looking at people and places, where the information they got would be most useful in Russia. He was very knowledgeable,” Ms Morgan said.
“By gathering information and passing it on to the Russian Government, the defendants were putting many lives at risk. By carrying out an event of this nature, organized on UK soil, the defendants were acting in a way that undermined the security and interests of the UK.”
The court heard that not all of the accused were involved in all of these activities, but each person at the port played a role in at least two.
Mrs Ivanova, from Harrow, North West London, is denying that she has fake documents, including British, French, Italian, Greek, Czech, Slovenian, Croatian and Bulgarian passports, as well as a Spanish residence permit and other documents, residence documents and driving licences. .
The trial continues on Monday.