UK court convicts three Bulgarians of spying for Russia

A London jury has convicted three Bulgarians living in the UK of spying for Russia.

Vanya Gaberova, 30, Katrin Ivanova, 33, and Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, were found guilty on Friday at London’s Central Criminal Court.

Prosecutors said the trio, whose trial started in November, had carried out espionage on “an industrial scale”.

They were alleged to have worked across Europe on behalf of the Russian intelligence services between 2020 and 2023.

This included reportedly spying on a US military base in Germany where Ukrainian soldiers were thought to be training.

The defendants also considered killing Christo Grozev, a Bulgarian journalist and former lead Russia investigator with Bellingcat, or kidnapping him and taking him to Russia, according to the prosecution.

Two other defendants in the spy ring — Orlin Roussev and Biser Dzhambazov — pleaded guilty to espionage and having false identity documents.

The guilty verdict on Friday comes more than three years after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.