Suspected Russian spies targeted journalist with Facebook 'honey trap', UK court hears

By Sam Tobin

A group of Bulgarian nationals accused of spying for Russia targeted an investigative journalist with the Bellingcat news outlet and tried to lure him into a "honey trap" via Facebook, prosecutors told a London court on Monday.

Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, are accused of being part of a highly sophisticated spying network, run by a Russian agent named as Jan Marsalek, which targeted people including dissidents.

Prosecutors say the trio – along with two men, Orlin Roussev and Bizer Dzhambazov, who have admitted being part of a spying conspiracy – also carried out surveillance on a U.S. military base in Germany where Ukrainian forces were being trained.

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Prosecutors allege that the three were acting under the direction of Roussev who in turn was receiving instructions from Marsalek, an Austrian national who used the false name of Rupert Ticz.

Marsalek is the former chief operating officer for collapsed payments company Wirecard and his current whereabouts are unknown.

Ivanova, Gaberova and Ivanchev deny the accusations.

Their trial at London's Old Bailey court continued on Monday, when prosecutor Alison Morgan said the group had conducted surveillance on Christo Grozev, a Bulgarian national who works for Bellingcat, in 2021.

Grozev was the lead investigator on Bellingcat's reports about the 2018 poisoning of the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England.

Morgan said Gaberova sent Grozev a friend request on Facebook as part of an attempt to gather information on him, which was directed by Marsalek and Roussev.

"Grozev seems hooked and in love with Vanya," Roussev told Marsalek in a message shortly after Grozev accepted the Facebook friend request.

HONEY TRAP

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Marsalek expressed concern that Gaberova might "fall in love with him", but Roussev replied: "Vanya is very, very assertive and strongly independent. True sexy bitch."

The prosecutor also said Ivanova, Gaberova and Dzhambazov followed Grozev to a hotel in the Spanish city of Valencia, with Gaberova taking a photo of him with Bellingcat's founder Eliot Higgins.

Ivanova filmed Grozev on board a flight from Austria to Montenegro using a pair of "surveillance video glasses", Morgan added.

Morgan also told jurors that Ivanova had "played a central role" in 2021-22 in surveillance of Roman Dobrokhotov, a Russian living in Britain who is editor in chief of The Insider, an independent media outlet.

Morgan said Marsalek and Roussev had discussed a "plan for the potential kidnap of Mr Dobrokhotov", possibly in Britain, before deciding that such a plan would be too dangerous.

Marsalek had said in a message to Roussev: "A successful operation on British ground would be amazing after the fucked up Skripal stuff."

Morgan said at the start of the trial last week that the group had been paid to carry out their surveillance and to compile detailed reports.

Ivanova, Gaberova, and Ivanchev deny a charge of conspiracy to gather information useful to an enemy between August 2020 and February 2023. Ivanova also denies possessing false identity documents. Their trial is expected to last until February.

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