Orlin Roussev failed to delete tens of thousands of messages (Image: PA)
A Russian spy chief blew his network after failing to delete almost 80,000 messages with his boss in Moscow, detectives have revealed.
Orlin Roussev, from Great Yarmouth, was the “sloppiest” of the five Bulgarians involved in “spying on an almost industrial scale” for the Kremlin.
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Counter-terrorism police and MI5 were able to smash the network – controlled by former Wirecard chief operating officer Jan Marsalek from Moscow – after Roussev kept messages containing instructions, targets, surveillance logs and extraordinary amounts of detail about their plots.
They also exposed a nervousness in the Russian capital about their spies getting caught.
Russian spy Katrin Ivanova (Image: PA)
Biser Dzhambazov and Vanya Gaberova (Image: PA)
This “treasure trove” led to the convictions of Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39 , after “one of the biggest spying investigations” in decades.
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Orlin Roussev, 47, from Great Yarmouth, and Biser Dzhambazov, 43, from London, had already admitted being part of a conspiracy to spy.
Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, revealed: “This was spying on almost industrial scale, on behalf of Russia, the Russian state and Russian intelligence services.
“They key to unlocking this was the search warrant at Great Yarmouth and finding Roussev’s device, which gave us that long Telegram chat between him and Jan Marsalek.
“You see that quite often. There’s a level of arrogance of some of these individuals when they are leading these things when they don’t do the things they should do.”
Asked if there were other mistakes that led to the spy cell being discovered, Mr Murphy said: “What this normally falls down to, is the scale of activity means they lose control of some of what happens.
“And then individuals like Roussev don’t do the things you would expect them to do.
“Keeping all those messages, having all of this material in one place.
“But clearly, they were also storing the logs of their surveillance operations, the things they have observed, the activities they have undertaken.
“All of that was available to us. Everything coming out of the messages was so significant. It’s really a treasure trove of hugely technical information.”
Presented with the proposition that the “man at the centre had been the sloppiest of all, the Senior Investigating Officer, who cannot be named for security reasons, responded: “You could make that point”.
The messages between Roussev and Marsalek on Telegram revealed plots to kidnap journalists and to target Ukrainian troops being trained in the use of surface-to-air missiles at a US military base.
And Roussev told the Marsalek, an Austrian national who is subject to an Interpol red notice, he had a “contact” in airline company Swissport who could switch seats on a plane to position Ivanova near journalist and target Christo Grozev.
Katrin Ivanova, 33, was able to get so close to the investigative reporter she could see his mobile phone pin number and record him on a camera hidden in the shoulder strap of her bag.
Messages also revealed Roussev and Marsalek considered poisoning Roman Dobrokhotov – the editor of The Insider, with ricin or the nerve agent VX, which they said Israel had used against members of Hamas.
But Marsalek dismissed the idea of an “accident” in the shower, stating: “I fear that’s not dramatic enough… we need something of symbolic value.”
In another, the Russian agent added: “Maybe burn him alive on the street, spray him with some super-strong acid, VX like the North Koreans or the ricin… Shower accident won’t discourage others. It must create a dramatic story.”
As the pair discussed “operation fishing boat”, Roussev explained that “if we have the green light… we have the team” and that “we can really do this from the UK”.
He explained that “due to Brexit and cost-cutting the UK Coast Guard only has two speed boats operational for the entire UK coast line”.
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Gaberova ran a beauty salon in West London (Image: East2west News)
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Roussev said the Channel migrant crisis had exposed weaknesses in Britain’s borders.
Discussing the planned kidnapping in August 2022, Roussev claimed that ministers “did nothing to protect the waters... nothing”.
Marsalek added: “Dobrokhotov will be a counter migrant.”
The criminals also plotted to spray pig blood on the Kazakhstan embassy in London to help Russia.
Roussev, had brainstormed ideas with his Russian spymaster, including creating “deep fake porn” depicting the son of the Kazakhstan president and targeting him with a “honeytrap”, the Old Bailey was told.
Jurors heard the aim was to create the pretence that the spies had genuine intelligence about activists to pass on to Kazakhstan intelligence services, to enable Russia to “gain favour” with government officials.
On August 28 2022, Marsalek wrote: “I was thinking of graffitis and demonstrations outside the Kazakhstan embassy in London and also maybe a deep fake porn video of the son of the president.”
Roussev replied: “Yes both are cool and very feasible.”
Marsalek went on: “Also a honeytrap for the son when he is travelling in Europe could be a fun option.”
Mr Murphy said of the messages: “Having identified the groups and the plots, we were able to build up through those thousands of messages, and see how even though individual tasks and jobs were organised, we were able to pick out that whole tasking process.”
Roussev, in an extraordinary message as he discussed monitoring an American military base in Germany, boasted that his team was better at evading detection than the Russian agents who poisoned Skripal, a double agent, and his daughter Yulia at their home in Salisbury in 2018.
The spies were ordered to carry out surveillance on the base in Germany, which they believed was being used for training on Patriot missiles following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
They planned to use international mobile subscriber identity or “IMSI” catchers to identify soldiers’ mobile phones on the airbase so their movements could be tracked when they later served in Ukraine, the court was told.
Roussev added: “We are experienced, we know how to hide in plain site [sic] … not like the Skripal tourists,” he wrote to his controller in Moscow.
But the messages exposed a nervousness in Moscow that their spies could get caught.
Detailing the plot, Roussev told his accomplices a team on the ground would “go on a tour in Germany for 1 or 2 days,” adding “there has to be observation made of the entrance to a training regiment for Ukrainian soldiers”.
They would aim to see if there were “houses or apartments to rent” and if there was suitable parking.
“The goal is to find a good place and maybe a car that we swap every 2 days.
“It may be best to install the big Imsi catcher in an apartment.”
Several week later, Marsalek said he had more specific information for Roussev and a warning. There were two locations of interest, but “both appear to be US bases – so we-d have to be EXTREMELY careful”.
Prosecutors said Ivanova and Dzhambazov surveyed the outside of the airbase, and showed the court pictures and video of its perimeter and the town said to have been taken by her and recovered from her phone.
“The entire base is surrounded by a fence with wire mesh on the fence. There are cameras every five metres in both directions,” Dzhambazov wrote to Roussev.
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But there were signs of nervousness from Marsalek, who messaged Roussev stating: “Our friends here have asked to ask you/the team to be extremely careful because the Germans are totally nervous at the moment regarding Russian intelligence activities on the ground.”
Marsalek also ordered the spies to target Kirill Kachur, a Russian dissident lawyer, at his Montenegro villa in the Adriatic Sea resort of Budva, the court heard.
He told Rousssev: “We need to kidnap someone and ship him to Russia … We don’t mind if he dies by accident, but better if he manages to find his way to Moscow.”