The Bulgarian who directed the spy ring with support of Russia imprisoned for 10 years

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The leader of a Bulgarian espionage ring operating under the direction of Filferro’s fugitive Jan Marsalek has been sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison for spying on Russia.

Orlin Roussev’s ruling was issued on Monday in the former London Bailey for Justice Nicholas Hilliard.

It was found that the group performed surveillance on Russian journalists and dissidents and planned an operation aimed at Ukrainian troops, in a series of activities between 2020 and 2023 throughout the United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, Spain, Hungary and Montenegro.

The closest associate of Roussev, Biser Dzhambazov, received 10 years and two months for his role in managing a team he called “Minions”, formed by his partner Katrin Ivanova, his girlfriend Vanya Gaberova and the former Gaberova Thomir Ivanchev.

Ivanova received a nine -year and eight -month sentence, six -year -old Gaberova, and Ivanchev eight years old. Ivan Stoyanov, the final member of the group, was sentenced to five years and three weeks.

The six were Bulgarian national who had settled in the United Kingdom and, therefore, will be responsible for the deportation after fulfilling their prison terms.

Marsalek, ex -Wirecard Operational Director He is subjected to a red warning of Interpol, did not face charges, but was appointed in the accusation as a Russian agent who acted under alias Rupert Ticz.

Telegram messages shown in the court indicate that Marsalek fled to Russia after the fraud of the pay group of € 1.9 million was exposed in 2020, and later handed Roussev on behalf of Moscow’s military and domestic intelligence agencies, the GRU and the FSB.

Marsalek messages used in tests suggest that he worked as an autonomous fixer for the Russians, designing espionage operations against high profile goals and arms hiring schemes to help war in Ukraine. Five months after the large-scale invasion, Roussev sent a selfie dressed in a pro-rus military uniform, marked with a “Z” motif.

The Spy Ring directed to several Kremlin dissidents, including the Bulgarian research journalist Christo Grozev, the Russian journalist Roman Dobrokhotov and a former member of the Russian Research Committee, Kirill Kachur.

They also planned to spill Ukrainian soldiers on a United States military base in Stuttgart, where Marsalek believed that troops were training to use a surface missile defense system to patriotic air.

Roussev and his associate Dzhambazov declared guilty of espionage charges and false identity documents; Stoyanov also admitted spying. Ivanova, Gaberova and Ivanchev were sentenced by conspiracy to spy on a jury in March after a trial that lasted more than three months.

Ivanova and Gaberova claimed during the procedures that had been lied and manipulated by Dzhambazov, who was related to the two women. The court learned that he had told each of them that he had a brain tumor to explain his absences while he was with the other.

Ivanova said he thought he thought that the surveillance activities he had done were on behalf of a Bellingcat style website to present corrupt journalists. Gaberova, meanwhile, told the jury that Dzhambazov was working for Interpol and that he was attending legitimate police activities.

Roussev, who directed the spying ring from his home to Great Yarmouth, accumulated a group of espionage teams that include listening devices, GPS trackers, radio jams and costumes to use them in group operations. His residence took more one week to search and produced about 2,000 exhibitions.

Previously, in view of the sentence, Mark Summers KC, who represented Roussev, said that his client was only motivated by the money and firmly denied that he had any ideological affiliation with Russia.

“Nothing of the tests reveals it as an anti-regtep ideologist united or anti-west,” Summers told the judge. “He is not who he is. He is willing to work for those who pay him to do so.”

Roussev, who was arrested in February 2023, also made the idea that he acted as a Moscow agent. “I will be happy to see how … in the land of God there is a connection between me and Russia or any other state because I have not been spy or a government agency occupied for a state or state,” he said in his first police interview. “No James Bond … activity in my end, I guarantee you.”