Who are the three Bulgarians detained in the UK on suspicion of spying for Russia?

The Bulgarian embassy in London was not informed about the detention of the three Bulgarians, Bulgarian ambassador to the United Kingdom, Marin Raykov, told BNT on August 15. He has sent an inquiry to the British authorities about which prison they are in, but has no information whether they have already been released, as some media in the Kingdom claim.

Two of them, Biser Dzhambazov and Katrin Ivanova, were on the electoral commissions in one of the polling stations opened in the British capital for the parliamentary elections in Bulgaria in 2021.

The Sofia City Prosecutor's Office said it had launched an investigation under Chapter One of the Criminal Code for espionage in March. It is being conducted jointly with the State Agency for National Security (SANS) and no more information can be given because the information in it is classified.

According to BNT sources, the investigation of espionage by the British authorities started in the summer of last year, and the three - Orlin Roussev, Biser Dzhambazov and Katrin Ivanova were under surveillance for several months before they were arrested.

Three Bulgarians were detained in the UK on suspicion of spying for Russia

After they were arrested, a check was made on the identity documents found in their possession from different countries. Only their Bulgarian documents were found to be genuine. All the others were fake.

There are indications that some of the fake documents may have been produced in the Iberian Peninsula, but investigators in the British capital are continuing to gather information on this line. There is no evidence that the three have visited Bulgaria in the past 12 months.

There have also been no suspicious financial transactions of the three to Bulgaria or through banks operating in Bulgaria. However, their offshore bank accounts are being checked in cooperation with intelligence and financial services from several countries.

The Bulgarian Embassy in London was not informed of the detention of the three Bulgarians.

The social media account of the Bulgarian Social Platform created by Dzhambazov and Ivanova is active, but the last post on it is dated January 19, 2020. It is a video by Katrin Ivanova in which she explains about the English language courses they organise to help Bulgarians in East London. Many of the courses are free but it is not clear from what sources they have been funded. Biser Dzhambazov was chairman of the Sectional Election Commission in a polling station and Katrin Ivanova was a regular member. Both were nominated by the Bulgarian community.

According to BNT sources, in the first half of 2009, Orlin Roussev worked at the Ministry of Economy and Energy and at the Bulgarian Energy Holding. This was during the time of Minister Petar Dimitrov in the government of Sergei Stanishev. There is no practice for the UK authorities to inform diplomatic missions when foreign nationals are detained; this is done only at the explicit request of the detainees.