# How six Bulgarians did Russia's dirty work from the UK

## 8 days ago

**Chris Bell**
BBC News Investigations

**Tom Beal**
BBC News Investigations Correspondent

**Daniel De Simone**
BBC News Investigations





**Roman Dobrokhotov is used to looking over his shoulder.**

The Russian journalist's investigations into Vladimir Putin's regime - one of which  - have made him a target of the Kremlin.

But as the Insider editor waited on the tarmac to board a commercial flight from Budapest to Berlin in 2021, where he was to give evidence in a , he didn't notice the brunette woman stood behind him.

He thought nothing of it when she took a seat close to his. Nor did he see the camera strapped to her shoulder, quietly recording.



Grabs of Roman Dobrokhotov onboard the flight were retrieved by police from a surveillance report

That morning, the woman had flown from Luton to Budapest to locate the mark. Dobrokhotov's flight information had been obtained in advance.

As the aircraft approached its destination, the woman, a Bulgarian – Katrin Ivanova – sent a message on Telegram.

Then two more.





Her partner, Biser Dzhambazov, with whom she lived in Harrow, north London, was waiting for her and Dobrokhotov in Berlin.





The group Roussev employed, all Bulgarians, were not the spies of popular imagination.



Clockwise from top left: Orlin Roussev, Katrin Ivanova, Ivan Stoyanov, Biser Dzhambazov

A neighbour who knew two of the accused was sceptical they could be guilty. They were too stupid and didn't know anything, the neighbour asserted, though they admired the fighter's "enormous calves".

But they were not ineffective – Roman Dobrokhotov recognised none of the group's faces when pictures were shown to him by police.

The group operated a clear hierarchy. Roussev reported to Marsalek, who reported to his "friends in Russia". Roussev managed the rest of the Bulgarians, who he referred to as his "minions", Dzhambazov chief among them.

"There are no bosses here," Dzambhazov wrote, as he issued instructions to Ivanchev.

Nonetheless, "minion" was attached to the decorator's number in Dzhambazov's phone.



Katrin Ivanova told the jury she did not know Biser Dzhambazov and Vanya Gaberova were in a relationship behind her back

The group dynamics were complicated. Dzhambazov and Ivanova were in a long term relationship and lived together. Gaberova and Ivanchev were in a relationship until 2022.

But it was Dzhambazov and Gaberova police found in bed together when they burst into the beautician's northwest London flat in February 2023.

Between August 2020 and February 2023, Marsalek and Roussev exchanged 78,747 messages on the Telegram messaging app.

They reveal at least six operations the spy cell was tasked with over a period of years – four of which targeted individuals who were enemies of Putin's regime.

As well as Dobrokhotov, the Bulgarian investigative journalist Christo Grozev was watched at home in Vienna. Cameras in the window of a rented apartment nearby were trained on his front door.



Propped up with a stand and a water bottle, a phone camera is trained on Christo Grozev's door in Vienna

Ivan Stoyanov, who acknowledged his part in the conspiracy, was spotted parked in a Toyota Prius outside his address. Suspicious, an assistant of Mr Ryskaliyev noted the licence plate.

When confronted, the MMA fighter claimed he was working for a Kensington hospital, delivering tests. The next day, an NHS logo had been placed in the windscreen.

Prosecutors said providing information on a political dissident like Ryskaliyev "is predicated on Russian attempts to control diplomatic relations".

Indeed, Marsalek would further task Roussev with another project: a hare-brained scheme to initiate a staged protest at the Kazakh Embassy featuring blood dropped from drones, an astroturf human rights campaign involving Just Stop Oil, a letter addressed to the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, advertising on London buses and unrealised deepfake pornographic video of the Kazakh president's son. Russia would then help nervous Kazakh security services "uncover" the "activists" responsible.

In February 2022, Telegram exchanges between Marsalek and Roussev reveal a preoccupation with following Christo Grozev to Kyiv, where he was believed to have travelled.

Their offers to help were rebuffed.

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By February 2023, Roussev and Marsalek were plotting to send Dzhambazov and "one more person" to Stuttgart, where they believed Ukrainian soldiers to be training on Patriot missile systems.

Had they successfully deployed and captured Ukrainian troops' mobile phone data as planned, they might have used it to pinpoint those same troops on the battlefield – leading Russian forces to Western-supplied Ukrainian air defences.

"This was espionage activity of the highest level of seriousness," prosecutor Alison Morgan KC told the jury at the Old Bailey.

Before their plans could be put into action, they were arrested – Dzhambazov, Ivanova, Gaberova and Stoyanov in London, Roussev in his guest house.



Police found a number of IMSI grabbers at Orlin Roussev's Great Yarmouth address

Though Ivanchev identified himself to police outside Gaberova's flat, he would not be arrested for another year.

In his first police interview, he told officers he had spoken to MI5 in the interim. The interview was paused.



The BBC asks people in Kyiv whether a ceasefire deal could be a step towards ending war with Russia.

The BBC has asked to speak to people in Kyiv about the possibility of a ceasefire deal, but have been unable to reach them so far.

Not a single person seems to be aware of any agreement to resume fighting, despite reports of progress towards a ceasefire deal.

It is not the end.

"If there is no regime change, there will be new and new teams of people who come to kill or kidnap you," Roman Dobrokhotov told the BBC.

"This is this actually something that motivates us to work."

From the very beginning, he was sure it was something directly controlled by Vladimir Putin.

"In his dictatorship you would never take responsibility on your own to do such political stuff.

"You'd always have a direct order from the president."

"Putin is a psychopath who has no borders," he said.

_Message extracts have been edited for brevity._

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