6 Bulgarians convicted in UK of spying for Russia get prison terms up to
nearly 11 years
[May 13, 2025]
By BRIAN MELLEY
LONDON (AP) — Six Bulgarians convicted of carrying out a sophisticated
spying operation for Russia were sentenced by a London judge Monday to
prison terms up to nearly 11 years.
The group that used Hollywood code names discussed kidnapping or killing
Kremlin opponents as they targeted reporters, diplomats and Ukrainian
troops in the U.K., Germany Austria, Spain and Montenegro between 2020
and 2023, prosecutors said.
No one was physically harmed but the group put lives in jeopardy,
prosecutors said.
“It is self-evident that a high price attaches to the safety and
interests of this nation,” Justice Nicholas Hilliard, said. “The
defendants put these things at risk by using this country as a base from
which to plan the various operations. ... Anyone who uses this country
in that way, in the circumstances of this case, commits a very serious
offense.”
Ringleader Orlin Roussev, who operated out of a former guesthouse in the
English seaside resort town of Great Yarmouth, was given the stiffest
sentence — 10 years and 8 months in prison — for being involved in all
six operations discovered by police. He and the others faced up to 14
years behind bars.
Roussev worked for alleged Russian agent Jan Marsalek, an Austrian
national who is wanted by Interpol for fraud and embezzlement after the
2020 collapse of German payment processing firm Wirecard, prosecutors
said. His whereabouts are unknown.
Stiff sentences send a message
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said the case sends a warning to other foes
that Britain will use its “full range of tools” to “detect, disrupt, and
deter malicious acts from hostile states and protect the public.”
Roussev, 47, and his lieutenant Biser Dzhambazov, 44, pleaded guilty in
London’s Central Criminal Court last year to espionage charges and
having false identity documents. Dzhambazov was sentenced to 10 years
and 2 months in prison.
Roussev called himself Jackie Chan and Dzhambazov was dubbed Mad Max, or
Jean-Claude Van Damme. Their underlings were dubbed “Minions” from the
animated “Despicable Me” franchise.
Police said their fanciful pseudonyms masked a deadly serious gang.
In one operation, members tried to lure a journalist who uncovered
Moscow’s involvement in the 2018 Novichok poisoning of a former Russian
spy in Salisbury, England, into a “honeytrap” romance with another
member of the group, Vanya Gaberova.
The spies followed Christo Grozev, a Bulgarian researcher for the online
publication Bellingcat, from Vienna to a conference in Valencia, Spain,
and the gang’s ringleaders discussed robbing and killing him, or
kidnapping him and taking him to Russia.
“Learning only in retrospect that foreign agents have been monitoring my
movements, communications and home, surveying my loved ones over an
extended period — has been terrifying, disorientating and deeply
destabilizing,” Grozev said in a statement read during the four-day
sentencing hearing. “The consequences have not faded with time — they
have fundamentally changed how I live my daily life and how I relate to
the world around me.”
Ringleader claimed he was ‘no James Bond’
In another operation, members of the group conducted surveillance on a
U.S. air base in Germany where they believed Ukrainian troops were
training.
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This undated file handout photo issued by the Metropolitan Police
shows Orlin Roussev who has been sentenced to 10 years and eight
months in prison at the Old Bailey. (Metropolitan Police via AP)
After police raided his house and arrested Roussev, he denied doing
anything on behalf of any government.
“I would be thrilled to see how on God’s earth there is a connection
between me and Russia or any other state because I haven’t been a
spy or government agent,” Roussev said in a police interview. “No
James Bond activity on my end, I guarantee you.”
Messages to Marsalek, however, showed him talking about his “Indiana
Jones warehouse” of spy equipment and said he was becoming like “Q,”
the mastermind behind Bond’s gadgets.
Roussev's house was loaded with spy tech. He had equipment used to
jam Wi-Fi and GPS signals, along with eavesdropping devices and car
trackers. Cameras were hidden in sunglasses, pens, neckties and
cuddly toys, including one in a Minion doll.
A selfie of Marsalek wearing a Russian uniform was found on
Roussev’s phone.
Three of the so-called minions were convicted at trial in March of
spying for an enemy state.
Katrin Ivanova, 33, was sentenced to 9 years and 8 months in prison;
Gaberova, 30, was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months; and Tihomir
Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, was sentenced to 8 years.
Ivan Stoyanov, 33, a mixed martial arts fighter who pleaded guilty
to spying for Russia, was sentenced to 5 years and 3 weeks.
Each convict faces deportation after they are released from prison.
Spy ring contains love triangle
Both women had claimed during the trial that they had been deceived
and manipulated by Dzhambazov.
Dzhambazov, who worked for a medical courier company but claimed to
be an Interpol police officer, was in a relationship with both women
— his laboratory assistant and longtime partner Ivanova and
beautician Gaberova.
Gaberova had ditched painter-decorator Ivanchev for the “ugly”
Dzhambazov, who took her to a Michelin-starred restaurant and stayed
with her in a five-star hotel during a surveillance mission. When
police arrested the suspects in February 2023, they found Dzhambazov
naked in bed with Gaberova rather than at home with Ivanova.
Defense lawyer Anthony Metzer said Gaberova was naive and her case
was tragic as she “slipped into criminality” under Dzhambazov's
romantic spell.
But the judge said she knew what she was doing was for Russia.
“You found what you were doing exciting and glamorous, as
demonstrated by the film you took of yourself wearing surveillance
glasses in Montenegro,” Justice Hilliard said.
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