“Honey trap”: spies from Russia wanted to kidnap journalists Grozev and Dobrokhotov

A group of Russian agents, consisting of Bulgarians living in the UK, planned to take out The Insider founder Roman Dobrokhotov on a yacht, and wanted to lure Hristo Grozev into a trap with the help of a woman.

A group of Bulgarian citizens accused of spying for Russia pursued Bellingcat investigative journalist Hristo Grozev and Roman Dobrokhotov, founder of The Insider. Moreover, they wanted to kidnap Dobrokhotov and take him from Britain to continental Europe by boat. Reuters writes about this.

This information was heard on Tuesday in a London court at the trial of five Bulgarians at the Central Criminal Court of London (Old Bailey) a few days ago. Now the jury has heard in detail how the defendants in 2021 (when Dobrokhotov fled Russia from persecution) and in 2022 followed him and discussed plans for his kidnapping in correspondence. This was one of several operations planned by the spy cell.

Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tikhomir Ivanchev, 39, are accused of belonging to a complex spy network led by a Russian agent named Jan Marsalek, which persecuted, among other things, dissidents.

According to the investigation, Austrian citizen Jan Marsalek, whom prosecutors called “an intermediary who acted in the interests of Russian intelligence,” and the intermediary's head on the spot, Orlin Rusev, discussed the possibility of taking Dobrokhotov away by boat in August 2022.

Orlin Rusev and another defendant, Biser (Max) Dzhambazov, have previously pleaded guilty. Three more defendants (Katrin Ivanova, Vanya Gaberova and Tikhomir Ivanchev) – deny the charges. It is noteworthy that during the arrest Gaberova and Dzhambazov were found naked in the same bed.

They wanted to take Roman Dobrokhotov away on a yacht

The conspirators called the kidnapping of Roman Dobrokhotov “Operation Fisherman's Boat” among themselves, Marsalek and Rusev discussed how good it would be to conduct a successful operation in Britain after the failure of the poisoning of Sergei Skripal.

60~/p> The case of the poisoning of Sergei Skripal

The Insider Dobrokhotov and Bellingcat have published several investigations into the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury. In particular, they named the suspects in the crime — real and fictional — and found out exactly how they got to Salisbury.

Rusev and Marsalek discussed the options of going to sea on a private boat or yacht from Norwich or Hull on the east coast of England.

According to him, he and four other people were supposed to take part in the operation: Dzhambazov, a man named Ivan Stoyanov (he is not among the defendants), a special forces officer from Bulgaria, and a 68-year-old Bulgarian “very, very experienced sea wolf, a retired specialist in the military fleet from Soviet times.”

Rusev wrote that this man has two small yachts and has participated in races between Southampton on the southern coast of England and Spain or Portugal many times.

They wanted to catch Khristo Grozev in a “honey trap”

Prosecutor Alison Morgan stated that in 2021 the group was monitoring Khristo Grozev, a Bulgarian citizen working for Bellingcat. Grozev was the lead investigator on Bellingcat's reporting on the 2018 poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England.

Morgan stated that Gaberova sent Grozev a Facebook friend request as part of an effort to gather information about him, which was directed by Marsalek and Rusev.

“It seems that Grozev is infatuated with Vanya and in love with her,” — Rusev wrote to Marsalek in a message shortly after Grozev accepted a friend request on Facebook.

Marsalek expressed concerns that Gaberova might “fall in love with him,” but Rusev responded, “Vanya is very, very assertive and completely independent. A real sexy bitch.”

The prosecutor also said that Ivanova, Gaberova and Dzhambazov followed Grozev to a hotel in the Spanish city of Valencia, where Gaberova took a photo of him with Bellingcat founder Elliot Higgins.

They also discussed the possibility of taking his laptop and phone and delivering them to the Russian embassy, ​​burning his property, kidnapping him and delivering them to Moscow, or killing him.

Details of the case about Russian spies

The prosecution also announced in court the group's correspondence with the defendant Katrin Ivanova, who in November 2021, three months after Dobrokhotov's escape from Russia, followed him, taking a ticket for one of his flights and filming him with a hidden camera.

During the flight, Ivanova wrote in the chat of the group, which included Rusev: she reported that Dobrokhotov had two phones, that he was on social media, that he was listening to music, and solves Sudoku.

Ivanova spied on Dobrokhotov's phone PIN code and passed it on to the chat. The prosecution says the code was almost correct — just an extra digit at the end.

On Tuesday, jurors heard that surveillance of Grozev in Ukraine was stopped just before Russia's invasion.

Rusev and Marsalek corresponded in February 2022, shortly before the full-scale invasion, and at one point Marsalek wrote: “Our friends are worried that our presence could hinder another operation in Ukraine. They would like us to refrain from any action on the ground for now.”

The court heard that the guesthouse in Great Yarmouth where Rusev was staying was “crammed” with technical equipment used for espionage.

During the period of the alleged conspiracy, the group had 221 mobile phones, 258 hard drives, 495 SIM cards, 33 audio recording devices, 55 video recording devices, 11 drones, 16 radios and three IMSI capture devices, which are high-tech equipment that allows you to collect and use data about devices used nearby.

The court found that they also had devices for listening in and jamming Wi-Fi, as well as 75 passports and identity documents, including 55 in the names of other people.

According to the investigation, these five Bulgarian citizens participated in six espionage operations over three years, which consisted of surveillance of people and reconnaissance of objects of interest to Russia. In particular, they wanted to attack the US military base Patch Barracks in Stuttgart at the end of 2022.