6 Bulgarians convicted in U.K. of spying for Russia get prison terms up to nearly 11 years

The Russian flag flies at half mast at the Russian embassy in London, Saturday, March 23, 2024 following an attack Friday on the Crocus City Hall on the western edge of Moscow for which the Islamic State group claimed responsibility. (AP Photo/David Cliff)

LONDON — 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.

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.

Defence 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.