Like in a spy novel: What did we learn about the « minions » – the Bulgarians who worked for Russia

Three Bulgarians were found guilty of participating in a Russian spy group, led by the search for the Wyarkard case, Jan Marsaleck. They have carried out monitoring of an American military base training Ukrainian military and have followed the persons indicated by Moscow, Reuters reported on Friday.

The three lived in London and traveled through Europe, watching journalists, a former politician and a US military base in Germany between 2020 and 2023.

During the day, they worked as a cosmetician, health worker and decorator, but conspired for abductions and killings, the BBC reports.

According to the prosecutor's office, the three, together with Orlin Rusev and Biser Dzhambazov, who admitted their guilt before the start of the trial, have monitored journalists and planned to organize a false protest in front of the Kazakhstan embassy in the Len. Cample, 33-year-old Ivan Stoyanov, also admitted that he had spied on Russia.

Their sentences are expected to be announced in May.

The « minions »

The six members of a Russian spy network, called the Minions, have been threatened for many years in prison because of one of the « largest and most complex » enemy operations in the UK, BTA added, citing the German agency DPA.

Ivanova, Gaberova and Ivanchev participated in a series of surgeries for surveillance and intelligence within three years, during which they were called by the name of the yellow assistants of the villain of the movie « I, the damn ».

Instead of the animated villain GRU, the defendants worked for the Russian intelligence service known for the GRU initials.

They received their instructions from accusations that he was a Russian agent Jan Marsaleck, a 44 -year -old Austrian businessman, wanted by Interpol after the collapse of the German payments processing company Wyarkard, who is alleged in Russia.

Marsaleck acted as an intermediary between the Russian Foreign Intelligence GRU and the 47-year-old group leader Orlin Rusev. He led the « Minions » together with the second person in the group – 43 -year -old Biser Dzhambazov, who was in a love triangle with two women from the team – his partner Ivanova and Gaberova.

They target people and places interested in the Russian side and even conspired to obtain data from the mobile phones of Ukrainian soldiers, who were thought to be trained in an American air base in Germany before they went to the front.

They also discussed how to use the « Queen of Eyelashes » Gaberova to arrange a trap of a famous journalist, a plan to pour 100 liters of pork in front of the Kazakh Embassy in London with a drone, as well as a man abduction of a man in the UK.

« Indiana Jones' Garage »

A rich collection of spyware was found at the search of Rusev's operational center in Greate. In messages, he called his place his « Indiana Jones Garage ». Among the finds were home -made audiovisual spy devices hidden in stone, men's ties, a bottle of carbonated drink and a « minion » toy.

Reuters

False identity documents were also found at the address of Rusev, and in the apartment of Ivanova and Dzhambazov – a hiding place with fake passports.

Six spy missions

During the process, police collected by police was presented to participate in the group of six operations. Data on them were extracted from most of the 100,000 messages in Telegram on Rusev's phone, in which he and Marsaleck discussed their plans.

In the general chat, Rusev used the nickname « Jackie Chan » and Dzhambazov – « Ludia Max » and « Jean -Claude Van Dam ». The two called the spies « minions ».

Hristo Grozev's « fascination »

The court presented evidence that the journalist Hristo Grozev, who was involved in the discovery of the Russian relationship behind the poisoning with the Novichok of Double Agent Sergei Skripal near London in 2018.

He was traced from Vienna to a conference in Valencia, with Ivanova managed to get close enough to him on the plane to record the pin code of his phone with a camera on his bag.

Gaberova, on the other hand, made friends with 54 -year -old Grozev on Facebook and secretly filmed how he was having breakfast at the Bellingcat founder, a group for investigative journalism he was working for – Elliot Higgins.

Reuters

Rusev discussed with Marsaleck how they could use the « real sexy bitch » Gaberova to bet a trap for Grozev. « We can certainly record something for Pornhub. She is a fire girl, she is also a swinger, » he said.

As she testified, Ivanova said she had been deceived by her longtime partner Dzhambazov and did not know that she was providing intelligence to Russia.

« I only believed what they told me, and that was my mistake, » she told the court.

« Significant case »

The court jury has been meeting for more than 32 hours to make the decision on the guilt of Ivanova, Gaberova and Ivanchev on charges of conspiracy for espionage in favor of an enemy side. Ivanova was also found guilty of possessing a hiding place with false identity documents. Rusev and Dzhambazov admitted that they had participated in the spy plot.

The defendants did not respond to the judgment of the sentences. The judge continued their detention until the session of their sentences between May 7 and 12.

For activities carried out in the UK, Austria, Spain, Germany and Montenegro, the accused are threatened by up to 14 years of imprisonment.

He compared the intentions in the group of toolkit with « sophisticated devices you would expect to find in a spy novel »

« Reading some of the messages and content of the devices, you may be tempted to think that this is not a serious threat, but behind these nicknames, there was an extremely complex operation to collect intelligence information, which was a threat to national security and individuals, including journalists, » Murphy added.