British justice begins the process of the network “minions”: Bulgarian chassis accused of spying in favor of Russia
Six Bulgarians, two women and four men -member men, are accusations of spying operations in the United Kingdom, in Austria, Spain, Germany and Montenegro, in particular Kremlin dissents and journalists. Their process starts today, May 7, in London, Agerpres reports.
Vania Gaberova, 30 years old, Katrin Ivanova, 33, Tihomir Ivanov Ivancev, 39, Orlin Rusev, 47, Djambazov, 43 years old, and Ivan Stoianov, 34 years old, risks up to 14 years in prison and will find out the penalties at the end of several Criminal Court in Anglia Located in London and better known as Old Bailey.
One of the members nicknamed the “Minions” group, like the small yellow characters in the animation series working for the evil GRU, they carried out operations for the benefit of the GRU, the Intelligence Service of the Russian Army.
The first three accused, who challenged the accusations held against the place, were declared guilty in early March, at the end of a trial that lasted several weeks, while the other three recognized their facts.
During the investigation, the police were able to reconstruct six operations, due to the analysis of over 100,000 messages found on the Telegram platform used by Orlin Rusev, who was conducting the group's operations at its Great Yarmouth home.
He received instructions especially from the Austrian Jan Marsalek, former operating director of the Wirecard Electronic Payment Company, which was one of the largest players on the market.
After running away from Germany in 2020 where he was sought by justice, Jan Marsalek would be in Moscow under a false identity, protected by Russian intelligence services, according to an international journalistic investigation of 2022.
Orlin Rusev would have received over 200,000 euros to finance their activities. After the group's arrest in February 2023, investigators found numerous spy equipment, such as microphones and rooms hidden in a tie, in a stone, a timber toy or a bottle of siphon, software, as well as a kit for the manufacture of false passports.
Investigative journalist, the main target
The group was in particular on the Bulgarian journalist of Christo Grozev investigations, who investigated Russian intelligence services, as well as Roman Dobrohotov, Russian journalist and a Russian dissident living in the United Kingdom and founded The Insider.
They also targeted Berghei Riskaliev, former Kazakh politician who had obtained refugee status in the United Kingdom.
They also supervised the American military base Patch Barracks in Stuttgart, in Germany, believing that Ukrainian soldiers were formed there to use the Patriot air defense system.
The group practiced “espionage for Russia on an industrial scale”, said the chief commander of the anti -terrorist unit of the Dominic Murphy Metropolitan Police at the end of the trial, adding that he has not seen something like this in more than 20 years of his career.
British Security Minister Dan Jarvis said that this process transmits 'a clear warning to those who want to hurt the United Kingdom'.
The relations between London and Moscow were very tense after the Russian invasion against Ukraine, in February 2022. The two countries are accused of spying, which translates to frequent mutual expulsions of diplomats.
In the United Kingdom, justice was notified of several supposedly spying cases involved Moscow.
A 64 -year -old man, Howard Michael Phillips, accused of assistance to the Russian Intelligence Service, is to be tried in July.
