A neighbor knew two accused people and doubted they were guilty. The neighbor thought they seemed dumb and clueless, yet noticed the fighter had really big calves. These folks still worked effectively since Roman Dobrokhotov never recognized any faces when police showed him pictures. Their group followed clear chain-of-command rules, with Roussev answering to Marsalek, who reported to Russian contacts.
Roussev managed all the Bulgarian team members, calling them his servants, with Dzhambazov as the main helper. Dzhambazov wrote messages claiming nobody acted as boss yet gave orders to Ivanchev regularly. He even saved the decorator's phone number with the label servant attached. The relationships between these spies became messy over time. Dzhambazov lived with his longtime girlfriend, Ivanova, and Gaberova dated Ivanchev until 2022.
Police surprised everyone when they found Dzhambazov in bed with Gaberova during a raid at her Northwest London apartment in February 2023. Between August 2020 and February 2023, investigators discovered that Marsalek and Roussev exchanged almost 79,000 messages through Telegram. Their conversations revealed six different spy missions over several years, with four targeting people Putin considered enemies.
Besides watching Dobrokhotov, they spied on journalist Christo Grozev at his Vienna home. They installed cameras inside the windows of nearby rental apartments facing his front door. They followed him during flights and took photos of him eating breakfast with Elliott Higgins, who helped start the Bellingcat investigation group, at a hotel in Valencia. Grozev's work caused many problems for Russian intelligence agencies.
The spy team observed Grozev meeting an arms dealer in Bulgaria who survived an assassination attempt that Grozev connected to Russian government actions. Gaberova received instructions to become friendly with him as part of their plan. They also hunted for Kirill Kachur in Montenegro, a former employee of the Russian Investigative Committee who angered Kremlin officials. The team wanted to impress their bosses with results.
Another Russian intelligence group operated nearby, including a woman who smoked constantly, nicknamed Red Sparrow. Marsalek and Roussev discussed kidnapping and killing both Grozev and Kachur. These threats seemed real because someone had already taken one of Kachur's colleagues to Moscow against his will. They also targeted Bergey Ryskaliyev, a former Kazakh politician living under refugee protection in London, watching his luxury Hyde Park apartment.
The spies conducted more surveillance at his home address. Ivan Stoyanov, who admitted his role in the conspiracy, parked a Toyota Prius outside the building. An assistant working for Ryskaliyev became suspicious and wrote down the license plate number. When questioned about his presence, the MMA fighter claimed he delivered medical tests for a Kensington hospital. The next day, people noticed he added an NHS logo to his car windshield.
Prosecutors explained that gathering information about political refugees like Ryskaliyev helps Russia control diplomatic relationships with other countries. Marsalek later assigned Roussev an elaborate scheme targeting the Kazakh Embassy. This crazy plan involved staged protests with blood dropped from drones, fake human rights campaigns connected to Just Stop Oil, letters sent to Ursula von der Leyen, advertisements on London buses, and creating deepfake pornographic videos featuring the Kazakh president's son.
Russia planned to help Kazakh security services discover these fake activists after making them nervous about the situation. Messages between Marsalek and Roussev from February 2022 show they wanted to follow Christo Grozev to Kyiv, where they believed he traveled. Someone rejected their offers to assist with this mission. Less than three weeks after these messages, Russian military forces attacked Ukraine from multiple directions across the border.
Later that year, Marsalek asked whether they could use one of their three IMSI grabbers to spy on Ukrainian soldiers stationed in Germany. These devices secretly capture phone communications. Roussev promised to find the equipment stored in what he called his Indiana Jones garage, where it collected dust. Marsalek mentioned this idea many times during their conversations. By February 2023, they planned to send Dzhambazov plus another person to Stuttgart.
They believed Ukrainian troops trained on Patriot missile systems there. If they succeeded in capturing mobile phone data from these soldiers, they might have used this information to locate the same troops on battlefields later. This would help Russian forces find Western-supplied Ukrainian air defense systems. The prosecutor, Alison Morgan, told the jury at Old Bailey this represented extremely serious espionage activity. Police arrested them before they completed these plans, capturing Dzhambazov, Ivanova, Gaberova, and Stoyanov in London.
Authorities arrested Roussev at his guest house. Though Ivanchev identified himself to police outside Gaberova's apartment, officials waited another year before arresting him. During his first police interview, he mentioned speaking with MI5 previously, causing officers to pause the questioning. None of the six people denied their actions. Roussev, Dzhambazov, and Stoyanov pleaded guilty before the trial began, but Ivanova, Gaberova, and Ivanchev claimed they never knew they worked for Russia.
The jury rejected their claims of ignorance. After deliberating more than 32 hours, they found Ivanova, Gaberova and Ivanchev guilty. The court also convicted Ivanova of possessing multiple fake identity documents. They face prison sentences of up to 14 years when sentenced in May. Roman Dobrokhotov told BBC reporters the danger continues because, without regime change, new teams will come to kill or kidnap people like him.
He explained this motivates him to keep working despite the risks. From the beginning, he felt certain Vladimir Putin directly controlled these operations. He stated nobody would take personal responsibility for such political activities without direct orders from the president himself. Dobrokhotov described Putin as a psychopath who recognizes no boundaries or limits to his actions.
Roussev managed all the Bulgarian team members, calling them his servants, with Dzhambazov as the main helper. Dzhambazov wrote messages claiming nobody acted as boss yet gave orders to Ivanchev regularly. He even saved the decorator's phone number with the label servant attached. The relationships between these spies became messy over time. Dzhambazov lived with his longtime girlfriend, Ivanova, and Gaberova dated Ivanchev until 2022.
Police surprised everyone when they found Dzhambazov in bed with Gaberova during a raid at her Northwest London apartment in February 2023. Between August 2020 and February 2023, investigators discovered that Marsalek and Roussev exchanged almost 79,000 messages through Telegram. Their conversations revealed six different spy missions over several years, with four targeting people Putin considered enemies.
Besides watching Dobrokhotov, they spied on journalist Christo Grozev at his Vienna home. They installed cameras inside the windows of nearby rental apartments facing his front door. They followed him during flights and took photos of him eating breakfast with Elliott Higgins, who helped start the Bellingcat investigation group, at a hotel in Valencia. Grozev's work caused many problems for Russian intelligence agencies.
The spy team observed Grozev meeting an arms dealer in Bulgaria who survived an assassination attempt that Grozev connected to Russian government actions. Gaberova received instructions to become friendly with him as part of their plan. They also hunted for Kirill Kachur in Montenegro, a former employee of the Russian Investigative Committee who angered Kremlin officials. The team wanted to impress their bosses with results.
Another Russian intelligence group operated nearby, including a woman who smoked constantly, nicknamed Red Sparrow. Marsalek and Roussev discussed kidnapping and killing both Grozev and Kachur. These threats seemed real because someone had already taken one of Kachur's colleagues to Moscow against his will. They also targeted Bergey Ryskaliyev, a former Kazakh politician living under refugee protection in London, watching his luxury Hyde Park apartment.
The spies conducted more surveillance at his home address. Ivan Stoyanov, who admitted his role in the conspiracy, parked a Toyota Prius outside the building. An assistant working for Ryskaliyev became suspicious and wrote down the license plate number. When questioned about his presence, the MMA fighter claimed he delivered medical tests for a Kensington hospital. The next day, people noticed he added an NHS logo to his car windshield.
Prosecutors explained that gathering information about political refugees like Ryskaliyev helps Russia control diplomatic relationships with other countries. Marsalek later assigned Roussev an elaborate scheme targeting the Kazakh Embassy. This crazy plan involved staged protests with blood dropped from drones, fake human rights campaigns connected to Just Stop Oil, letters sent to Ursula von der Leyen, advertisements on London buses, and creating deepfake pornographic videos featuring the Kazakh president's son.
Russia planned to help Kazakh security services discover these fake activists after making them nervous about the situation. Messages between Marsalek and Roussev from February 2022 show they wanted to follow Christo Grozev to Kyiv, where they believed he traveled. Someone rejected their offers to assist with this mission. Less than three weeks after these messages, Russian military forces attacked Ukraine from multiple directions across the border.
Later that year, Marsalek asked whether they could use one of their three IMSI grabbers to spy on Ukrainian soldiers stationed in Germany. These devices secretly capture phone communications. Roussev promised to find the equipment stored in what he called his Indiana Jones garage, where it collected dust. Marsalek mentioned this idea many times during their conversations. By February 2023, they planned to send Dzhambazov plus another person to Stuttgart.
They believed Ukrainian troops trained on Patriot missile systems there. If they succeeded in capturing mobile phone data from these soldiers, they might have used this information to locate the same troops on battlefields later. This would help Russian forces find Western-supplied Ukrainian air defense systems. The prosecutor, Alison Morgan, told the jury at Old Bailey this represented extremely serious espionage activity. Police arrested them before they completed these plans, capturing Dzhambazov, Ivanova, Gaberova, and Stoyanov in London.
Authorities arrested Roussev at his guest house. Though Ivanchev identified himself to police outside Gaberova's apartment, officials waited another year before arresting him. During his first police interview, he mentioned speaking with MI5 previously, causing officers to pause the questioning. None of the six people denied their actions. Roussev, Dzhambazov, and Stoyanov pleaded guilty before the trial began, but Ivanova, Gaberova, and Ivanchev claimed they never knew they worked for Russia.
The jury rejected their claims of ignorance. After deliberating more than 32 hours, they found Ivanova, Gaberova and Ivanchev guilty. The court also convicted Ivanova of possessing multiple fake identity documents. They face prison sentences of up to 14 years when sentenced in May. Roman Dobrokhotov told BBC reporters the danger continues because, without regime change, new teams will come to kill or kidnap people like him.
He explained this motivates him to keep working despite the risks. From the beginning, he felt certain Vladimir Putin directly controlled these operations. He stated nobody would take personal responsibility for such political activities without direct orders from the president himself. Dobrokhotov described Putin as a psychopath who recognizes no boundaries or limits to his actions.
