Six Bulgarians face long UK jail sentence for espionage for Russia
Six Bulgarians, members of a sophisticated detective network, were termed as “The Minis”, before the court on Wednesday, facing a 14 -year jail to spy for Russia.Four men and two women were either convicted or convicted of conspiracy allegations for spying at the behest of Russia after a four -day hearing in the Old Belly Court in London.Between 2020 and 2023, the six-individual cell targeted journalists and a former politician of Kazakh, and in many European countries, while tracking them, hatched the goals of kidnapping and honeytrap.This was “spy on industrial-fame from Russia”, Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorism Chief Commander Dominic Murphy said in March.Ringalder Orlin Rusev, 47, his second-in-command bizer dzhambazov, 43, and 32, 32 with Ivan Stoyonov, blamed for spying.Barrister for the prosecution, Alison Morgan played his roles in separate operations on Wednesday, insisting that he knew that he was spying for Moscow.London -based Catrin Ivanova, 33, 30 -year -old Vanya Gaberova and 39 -year -old Tihomir Ivanchev were convicted in March after running for more than three months in the Old Belly Court in March.
Working for Gru:
Two of the group were in court on Wednesday, along with the rest of their detention centers were introduced by video links.He described himself as “The Mineans” in the film “Despicable Me” after cartoon yellow characters, who work for Dustardly Gru. Six also worked for GRU, which was brief for Russian military intelligence service.The group also started operations in the UK as well as Austria, Spain, Germany and Montenegro.But the UK Police was able to resume six operations for more than 100,000 messages found on the Telegram account of Rusev, due to which the police led the police to the police at their seaside home in the eastern city of Great Yarmouth.Rusev received his instructions from Jan Marselake, an Austrian fugitive, who allegedly fled to Russia in 2020 after being desired for fraud in Germany.Former Chief Operating Officer of Payment firm Wirecard, Marselake, was acting as a proxy for Russian intelligence services.An operation targeted the investigative journalist Christo Grozev from the Belingcat website, who highlighted the Russian link for the 2018 Novichok Chemical Weapon attack in the English city of Salisbury and the Downing of a Malaysia Airlines airplane four years ago.The group planned a “disruptive activity” at the Kazakh Embassy in 2022, discussing the plan to spray the building with fake pig blood.
Like a ‘detective novel’:
Rusev received over 200,000 euros ($ 227,000) to fund its activities.After the gang was busted in February 2023, the police found a large amount of spyware equipment in his house, including cameras and microphones, including hidden in the relationship, a stone, even a bitter toy and a fizzi drink bottle.In messages to Marselake, Rusev claimed that “he would find resources” “to keep Russians happy”, such as kidnapping someone, said Morgan.He said, “The defendants were deployed to gather information about the prominent persons whose activities were clear to the Russian state,” he said.Murphy said in March that the police found “really refined tools – what you would really expect to see in a detective novel”.Journalist and disgruntled Roman Dobroquoov, and former Kazakh politician Bargei Riskal,, gave refugee status in Britain, also in his goals. The group also kept the US military base patch barracks in Germany’s Stutgart, assuming that Ukrainian soldiers were being trained in using the Patriot Air Defense System.The tension between Britain and Russia has been stressed since Moscow’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022.British Security Minister Dan Jarvis warned that the convict should “send a clear warning to those who want to harm Britain”.
