Three Bulgarians convicted of being part of 'one of largest' Russian spy rings ever found in UK
7 March 2025, 14:57 | Updated: 7 March 2025, 16:10
Three Bulgarian nationals have been found guilty for their involvement in one of the "largest and most complex" Russian spy operations to be uncovered on UK soil.
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Bulgarians Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, were found guilty at the Old Bailey of spying on an "industrial scale", putting lives and national security at risk.
They engaged in a series of surveillance and intelligence operations over three years on people targeted by Russia, including investigative journalists and a US military base in Germany.
Their plans were shown in thousands of messages exchanged between the cell's leaders that were recovered by police.
The messages included plots to kidnap and kill some of the group's targets.
The group were referred to as Despicable Me's yellow sidekicks but instead of a cartoon evil mastermind Gru, the defendants acted as spies working for the Russian intelligence service, also known as GRU.
A jury deliberated for more than 32 hours to find Ivanova, of Harrow, Gaberova, of Euston, and Ivanchev, of Acton, guilty on Friday of plotting to spy for an enemy state.
Ivanova was also convicted of having a stash of false identity documents "with improper intention",
Sentencing was adjourned until May 7 to May 12, with the defendants facing sentences of up to 14 years in jail.
Fellow Bulgarians Orlin Roussev, 47, from Great Yarmouth, and Biser Dzhambazov, 43, from London, had previously admitted conspiracy to spy.
Meanwhile a sixth defendant, Ivan Stoyanov, 34, also admitted spying before the trial and his conviction can now be reported for the first time.
The two women convicted on Friday were both involved in relationships with Dzhambazov, a medical courier who ran the ground operations of the spy ring, the jury heard.
Frank Ferguson of the Crown Prosecution Service said the group acted together under the leadership of Roussev, whose home in Great Yarmouth "revealed a spy factory with a wide-ranging degree of gadgets and technology".
He added: "This was a high-level espionage operation with significant financial rewards for those involved in the spy ring."
Key targets of the cell were investigative journalists Christo Grozev and Roman Dobrokhotov, whose work includes exposing Russia's role in the nerve agent attacks on Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020 and Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018.
During the trial, prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said the spy cell was "sophisticated in their methodology; carrying out surveillance activity of individuals and places; manufacturing and using false identities and deploying advanced technology to acquire information".
Met counter-terrorism chief Commander Dominic Murphy told PA news agency: "This was industrial-scale espionage on behalf of Russia.
"This is one of the largest and most complex examples of a group working for a foreign state to conduct intelligence surveillance operations here in the UK."
