Russian spies in love triangle were to be used in ‘honeytrap’ operation across Europe, court hears

Two female Russian spies in a love triangle were to be used as “honeytraps” in a surveillance operation on targets across Europe, run from the UK, a court has been told.

Katrin Ivanova, 33, a lab assistant, and Vanya Gaberova, 30, a beautician, were intended to be “in direct contact” with targets “as sexual bait to capture more information”, the Old Bailey heard.

They were allegedly assisted by Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, a painter and decorator from Enfield who had previously been in a relationship with Gaberova.

Bizer Dzhambazov, 43, a medical courier who has pleaded guilty to the spying conspiracy, lived with Ivanova in Harrow, northwest London, but was also having a relationship with Gaberova, who had a flat in Euston.

Alison Morgan KC, prosecuting, told the jury: “They may each, in different ways, seek to rely on these relationships to suggest that they were in some way misled, or that they were blindly following others or going around Europe simply out of love.

“The prosecution’s case is that they were all knowingly involved in this conspiracy. This is not the sort of activity that you conduct simply because of a romantic relationship.”

The spy ring was allegedly run by Orlin Roussev, 46, who lived in a guest house in Great Yarmouth and “tasked” a network of spies who included Ivanova, Gaberova, and Ivanchev.

He has also pleaded guilty to the conspiracy.

The spy ring was allegedly directed by a Russian agent called Jan Marsalek, 43, an Austrian national who used the online alias “Rupert Ticz”.

“By gathering the information and passing it on to the Russian state, the defendants were, make no mistake, putting many lives at risk,” Ms Morgan said.

The activity is said to have taken place between 30 August 2020 and 8 February 2023 in locations including London, Vienna, Valencia, Montenegro and Stuttgart.

Each received “significant sums of money for their actions”, Ms Morgan said, and their activities “caused obvious and inevitable prejudice to the safety and interests of the United Kingdom”.

Messages and money

Nearly 80,000 Telegram messages were recovered between Marsalek and Roussev, showing the “genesis and planning of the operations”.

“There are messages about Russia in general and direct references to President Putin in particular,” Ms Morgan said.

When police raided Roussev’s home in Great Yarmouth, they found it packed with technical equipment including 221 mobile phones, 258 hard drives, 495 SIM cards, 55 visual recording devices and 11 drones.

There were also Wi-Fi eavesdropping devices and items including jammers, cyber exploitation hardware, hacking software, card readers and GPS trackers.

There were 91 bank cards in the names of 17 individuals and 75 passports and identity documents in 55 individuals’ names.

Ms Morgan told the Old Bailey: “Over a period of nearly three years, they sought to gather information for the benefit of Russia, an enemy of the UK, about various targets, both people and locations, of particular interest to the Russian state.”

The operations

Bulgarian journalist Christo Grozev investigated the Salisbury poisonings for an investigative journalism group called Bellingcat, identifying the poisoners as coming from a Russian military unit called GRU29115.

As a result of his activities, Grozev was placed on the “wanted” list by the Russian Interior Ministry, the court was told, and targeted by the ring.

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The court also heard they targeted a man called Roman Dobrokhotov, a Russian national living in Britain who founded a media outlet called The Insider.

He had been forced to flee Russia in August 2021 after he was arrested and his passport removed.

The spy ring is said to have conducted surveillance at Patch Barracks, a US military Base in Stuttgart where they believed Ukrainian military forces were being trained in late 2022.

The court heard how in London, they planned to stage a demonstration outside the Kazakhstan embassy, in order to pretend they were in possession of genuine intelligence about those responsible, which they would then pass on to the Kazakhstan intelligence services, in order to try to gain favour on behalf of Russia.

They are also allegedly targeted Kazakhstani dissident Bergey Ryskaliyev.

Another target was Kirill Kachur, a Russian national who was living in Montenegro before he left the country in 2021 and was designated as a “foreign agent” by Russia, the court heard.

Mr Justice Hilliard adjourned the trial until Monday.