Who are the eighth Bulgarians, convicted or suspected of espionage for Russia
The six Bulgarians convicted of espionage operated in the UK, Austria and Germany, as well as in other cities in Europe, gathering information and tracking dissidents, politicians and journalists in favor of Russia. Two more names appeared later in Austria.
| Catherine Ivanova (43), Vanya Gaberova (30) and Tihomir Ivanchev (39)) were found guilty operated between August 30, 2020 and February 8, 2023 in various places, including London, Vienna, Valencia, Montenegro and Stuttgart. The three were charged in March by a court in London for being part of an advanced spy network run by a Russian agent and Austrian citizen Jan Marsaleck. |
In addition to gathering information, spies have traced people, including dissidents. The three lived in London and traveled through Europe, watching journalists, a former politician and an American military base in Germany between 2020 and 2023. During the day, they worked as a cosmetic, health worker and decorator, but conspired for abductions and murder, the BBC reports.
The three deny the allegations, but the other two – Orlin Rusev and Biser Dzhambazovthey acknowledged that they were part of a spy plot, with Rusev being the leader of the group and a mediator in the relationship with Marsaleck.
The spy group has participated in six key operations, including one for observation at the end of 2022, based on the US Patch in Germany, near Stuttgart, where Ukrainian troops trained to use ground-to-air missiles.
Sixth defendant, 33-year-old Ivan Stoyanovalso admitted that he had spied on Russia.
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.
The six members of a Russian spy network, named by the Minions, have been threatened for many years in prison because of one of the « greatest and most complex » enemy operations in the UK.
The new two names in Marsaleck network
On December 20, 2024, it became clear that the Bulgarian citizen C.D. Living in Austria, she is also suspected of an agent network. This year it became clear that it was again Jan Marsalek. Austrian and German publications have indicated that the woman has been detained in her apartment in Vienna and denies to participate in espionage.
The Edition « Profile » claims that C.D. has followed high -ranking Austrians as a former member of the leadership of the Wirecard financial company in 2020.
- Among them was Omar Hajjavi-Pierher, the director of Jordanian origin of the newly formed Intelligence Service Directorate for National Security and Intelligence (DSN) after the previous BVT terrorism agency failed to prevent the November 2 2020 attack in the capital. At that time, four were killed and 23 of the alleged members or sympathizers of the Islamic State were killed
- Another of the Bulgarian followed is Karl Marer, Head of the Vienna Organization of the ruling Austrian People’s Party
- The third name is Anna Talhamer, editor -in -chief of the magazine.
Her full name appeared in the BBC investigation after the Bulgarians condemned in London on March 7th. -Tsvetanka Doncheva. Then another name was revealed – Tsvetelina Gencheva. Both are not accused of anything and have not been detained.
Tsvetanka Doncheva
She is the Bulgarian woman, for whom the Austrian Intelligence and Continue Agency reports on March 24 that she has been suspected of distributing misinformation in favor of Russia in Austria and Germany.
The investigation describes that she lived in an apartment against that of Hristo Grozev in Vienna and helped to track him in the Austrian capital, including filming his home. Here she meets three of the British spy group – Vanya Gaberova, Catherine Ivanova and Biser Dzhambazov, who admitted intelligence and is referred to as the right hand of the leader Orlin Rusev.
The unemployed Doncheva (her explanation is that she cares for her mother) tells investigators that Vanya Gaberova told her who to follow and gave her a list of names, addresses and photos. Here, too, the version is repeated that she was misled by the others that they participated in the Student Project and that they work for Interpol. The Austrian investigators said that it was « unthinkable » that the Bulgarian really believed in such « dubious stories ».
Tsvetelina Gencheva
According to the BBC, she lives in Sofia and works in the « Airlines Industry », thanks to which she has submitted to the UK group on the flights on the flights with which they traveled to track citizens, including Hristo Grozev.
She did not seem to know what she was doing and justified herself by doing a service to an acquaintance, for example, because she traveled to Berlin as part of a Roman Dobrohotov spying group, the Russian investigative journalist and site leader The Insider. She was also part of a chat group used by Orlin Rusev, Biser Dzhambazov and Katherine Ivanova to coordinate tracking.
There is a little more specific data for Gencheva – that he is the sole owner of the International Aviation Consult. A report in the registers shows that a company with such a name was founded in 2012 and was registered at an address in a residential block in Sofia. Lyulin-6. Since 2009, Tsvetelina Atanasova Gencheva has been entered as a manager of a company from the Krasno selo district, and after 2011 she has registered 5 more companies at different addresses.
