The six Bulgarians accused of espionage in favor of Russia were sentenced to very large prison in the UK

The six Bulgarians, two women and four men, members of a network of spies nicknamed the “minions”, were sentenced by British justice to a total sentence of over 50 years in prison, for espionage in favor of Russia.

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At the Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, located in London and better known as Old Bailey, where the six, two women and a man were found to be guilty of conspiracy to obtain information intended to be directly or indirectly useful to Russia, notes Metropolitan Police.

Prior to the start of the trial, the other three men pleaded guilty to the accusations made under the law on official secrets.

Commander Dominic Murphy, the head of the Met's antiterrorism command, said: “The force of the investigation into the group's surveillance operations did not leave the leaders – Orlin Roussev and Bizer Dzhambazov – an option other than to plead guilty to the charges.

As seen in the images of his initial interviews, Rusev firmly denied that he would have worked for Russia. However, before being tried, he acknowledged that he was part of the spy network.

This was largely due to the detailed analysis of over 200,000 digital messages and hundreds of confiscated objects from Rusev's home.

The huge prison sentences against the group reflect the serious threat they represented for the safety and interests of the United Kingdom, as well as for targets throughout Europe.

This case is a clear example of the increasing number of cases of threat to the state we face in the United Kingdom. It also emphasizes a relatively new phenomenon by which the espionage is “outsourced” by certain states “Murphy added.

So the six received the following sentences:

• Orlin Rusev, 46, was sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison.
• Bizer Maksimov Dzhambazov, 43 years old, was sentenced to 10 years and two months in prison
• Katrin Ivanova, 33, was sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison
• Ivan Iliev Stoyanov, 33, was sentenced to five years and three weeks of prison
• Vania Gaberova, 30, was sentenced to six years, eight months and three weeks of prison
• Tihomir Ivanov Ivancev, 39, was sentenced to eight years in prison

Between 2020 and 2023, they undertook spy operations in the United Kingdom, Austria, Spain, Germany and Montenegro, in particular Kremlin dissents and journalists, writes Agerpres.

One of the members nicknamed the group “The minions“: 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 Information Service of the Russian Army.

The group was in particular on the Bulgarian journalist of Christo Grozev, who investigated Russian intelligence services, as well as Roman Dobrohotov, Russian journalist and 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.