The trial of five Bulgarian citizens who spied for Russia in European countries is underway in the UK. In particular, they planned to monitor a US airbase in the UK, where they believed Ukrainian military personnel were being trained. The spies even considered kidnapping a military officer and taking him to Moscow or killing him. The Telegraph writes about this with reference to the data from the Old Bailey court.
The leader of the group is 46-year-old Orlin Rusev. He and 43-year-old Bizer Dzhambazov confessed to conspiring with a Russian agent under the pseudonym Rupert Tietz, who, according to the prosecution, is an Austrian named Jan Marsalek.
The other three members of the group - 33-year-old Katrin Ivanova, 30-year-old Vanya Gaberova and 39-year-old Tikhomir Ivanchev - deny all charges.
Prosecuting, Alison Morgan QC, said the spies used sophisticated surveillance of people and places. They used false identities and "the introduction of advanced technology to obtain information".
They were paid "substantial sums of money". They were found to have 221 mobile phones, almost 500 SIM cards, dozens of recording devices, 11 drones, three IMSI grabbers that can be used to intercept data from devices, 91 bank cards and 75 passports.
The court learned that Rusev's tasks were set by Marsalek, who "can be properly called a Russian agent" and who "acted as an intermediary for the Russian special services". In total, this group worked for Russia from 2020 to 2023, and in 2022 they were tasked with monitoring the US military base in Stuttgart, Germany.
"The reason why this is so interesting to Russia is that it is believed to be the place where US forces train the Ukrainian military," the prosecution said.
Morgan added that the attackers wanted to obtain the personal data of the military personnel who were there.
Another task of the spies was to monitor investigator Christo Grozev. He has been under surveillance since 2021, and the options discussed ranged from stealing his laptop and phone to kidnapping him and killing him.
"By collecting information and passing it on to the Russian state, the defendants endangered many lives. By carrying out this type of activity planned in the UK, these defendants acted in a way that was prejudicial to the security and interests of the UK," Morgan added.
The court heard that not all the defendants were involved in all the operations, but that each person in the dock played a role in at least two of them.