A hierarchical community of people constituted a Russian-directed spy ring, the Outdated Bailey heard throughout a three-month espionage trial. Directed from Moscow by a fugitive, it was led by a Bulgarian primarily based in Nice Yarmouth who, largely by way of a good friend and deputy, directed the operations of the others. Listed below are these named in court docket.
Jan Marsalek, 44, the spymaster
The Austrian-born Russian agent had fled to Moscow in June 2020 after Wirecard, a German funds firm he helped run, collapsed amid a close to €2bn fraud. It was believed Marsalek had been secretly working for Russian navy intelligence for a decade. One report stated he had taken a brand new identification of an Orthodox priest, however the Outdated Bailey heard that from August 2020 to February 2023 he had been directing the actions of a spy ring of Bulgarians primarily based within the UK by way of an outdated affiliate, Orlin Roussev. Police recovered 78,747 messages between Marsalek, who used the moniker Rupert Ticz, and Roussev. He directed operations towards private adversaries and enemies of the Russian state, who had been typically one and the identical. In contrast to the opposite members of the spy ring, Marsalek stays at massive.
Orlin Roussev, 47, the ringleader
The main British-based member of the spy community, Roussev directed operations round Europe from a rundown former guesthouse within the centre of Nice Yarmouth however by no means travelled himself. A Bulgarian nationwide who lived within the UK, he was discovered to have amassed what he described as an “Indiana Jones warehouse” of surveillance gear price a whole lot of hundreds of kilos, plus a number of solid paperwork, together with passports, when he was arrested in February 2023. He pleaded responsible to spying on behalf of Russia earlier than the trial started and didn’t seem on the Outdated Bailey through the nine-week lengthy case, although there have been frequent references to him.
Biser Dzhambazov, 43, the sidekick
The medical courier from Harrow, north-west London had recognized fellow Bulgarian Roussev for a few years and like him pleaded responsible to espionage earlier than the trial started. Dzhambazov was Roussev’s good friend and principal ally. He referred to as himself “Van Dam,” after the Belgian martial artist, of their messages, whereas Roussev used the identify “Jackie Chan”. Dzhambazov had been in an extended relationship with the primary defendant, Katrin Ivanova, however was additionally courting Vanya Gaberova for a yr and a half. He instructed each ladies he had mind most cancers, although he was not sick, and Gaberova that he labored for Interpol, although his badges and photograph identification had been pretend.
Katrin Ivanova, 33, the ‘chief minion’
A lab technician who had recognized the older Dzhambazov since she was 17, she had come to the UK with him from Bulgaria in 2012. The 2 labored for a similar firm in Euston and lived collectively in a Harrow flat, the place pretend passports and surveillance cameras had been recovered by police. Ivanova pleaded not responsible after she was accused by prosecutors of partaking within the hostile surveillance of Christo Grozev, an investigative journalist and Kremlin critic, and the reconnaissance of a US barracks in Stuttgart the place Ukrainian troopers had been regarded as primarily based. Her defence was that she had been manipulated by Dzhambazov. She stated she knew nothing of his “parallel relationship” with Gaberova – and was pressured to confess an affair of her personal.
Vanya Gaberova, 30, the beautician
A beautician who had come to the UK on the finish of the final decade, she was working her personal salon in Acton on the time of her arrest. Gaberova met Dzhambazov as her relationship with the third defendant, Tihomir Ivanchev, was really fizzling out. She was recruited by Dzhambazov on a visit to Valencia, the place they stayed in a five-star resort, on the tail finish of what he stated was an operation for Interpol. Prosecutors accused Gaberova of turning into concerned within the monitoring of Grozev whereas figuring out he was disliked by the Russian state, however she pleaded not responsible, arguing that Dzhambazov had repeatedly lied to her. She stated he had instructed her falsely that Grozev was a “bad journalist” who was going to be uncovered by Interpol.
Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, the ex-boyfriend
A painter and decorator who stated his life “fucked up” after he met Gaberova. The 2 got here to the UK collectively, and Ivanchev lent Gaberova £30,000 to assist begin her magnificence salon, although the 2 broke up in the summertime of 2021. Gaberova launched him to her new boyfriend Dzhambazov, who instructed Ivanchev that he labored for Interpol and requested if he needed to go on a “free holiday” performing some fundamental surveillance of Grozev and others. Ivanchev stated in a police interview that after some time he realised “there is something dodgy” in what he was being requested to do, however prosecutors accused him of liaising with a Russian spy on one other surveillance operation in Montenegro.
