Reuters
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The UK-based Russian Spyling leader, who said prosecutors had monitored the Kremlin, said five team members were sentenced in prison for nearly 11 years on Monday in a London courthouse, as five team members were jailed for a total of about 40 years.
Orlin Roussev, 47, pleaded guilty before trial in one conspiracy to spy on Russian spies after police discovered thousands of messages between him and Wirecard fugitive Jan Marsalek.
Judge Nicholas Hilliard sentenced Rusev to prison for 10 years and eight months, informing Rusev that the operations he instructed posed serious risks to British national security.
Rusev is one of six Bulgarians convicted of his role in the team commanded by Marsalek to carry out surveillance of journalists, dissidents and Ukrainian soldiers trained at US military bases in Germany.
Three of the group were convicted in March after trial, but Rusev, his deputy Visors Hanbazov, 44, and a third member, Ivan Stoyanov, 33, pleaded guilty last year.
Dzhambazov was sentenced to 10 years and two months, while his 33-year-old former partner, Katrin Ivanova, was sentenced to 9 years and eight months.
Vanya Gaberova, 30, was sentenced to eight years in prison and was already in custody, deducting a period of one year and three months.
Her former partner, Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, has been declared eight years. Stoyanov was sentenced to six years and four months, and his working hours have already been shortened.
Prosecutors said the unit did not work directly for the Russian Intelligence Report and was mainly motivated by money.
The Russian Embassy in London has not commented on the incident, but the Kremlin has always refused to file such spy claims.
Britain and Russia’s relations have reached post-Cold War lows since the start of the Ukrainian War, with Britain accusing Russia of trying to cause “riots” in Europe.
A lawyer for Marsalek in Germany – he hopes as the former chief operating officer of the collapsed payments company Wirecard – previously declined to comment.
His whereabouts are unknown, but it is believed he is in Russia.
Prosecutors said spying activities pose a serious threat to UK national security, but police said the units were “spying on a nearly industrial scale.”
One of their operations was a plan to intercept mobile phone signals at Patchbarak, a US base near Stuttgart, where Ukrainian forces were thought to be training to use surface-to-air patriotic missiles, prosecutors added.
Many cases focused on thousands of messages between Marsalek and Roussev, which included half-baked plans and jokes about Russian operations on British soil, including the addiction of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in 2018.
In July 2022, Marsalek sent Rusev a selfie of himself wearing full military combat equipment with the “Z” logo, adopted by Russian troops as a symbol of invasion of Ukraine.
The pair repeatedly mentioned Russia’s GRU military intelligence and other security services, discussed plans to supply drones to Russia and Cameroon, and spoke about their praise for Elon Musk.
Marsalek and Roussev also discussed organizing air transport from Kabul in 2021 as the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan.
