LONDON
\nFive Bulgarian nationals accused of being part of a Russian spying network in Britain, tasked with carrying out surveillance and obtaining information about targets, appeared by videolink in a London court on Tuesday.
\nThe three men and two women are accused of conspiring \u201cto collect information intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy for a purpose prejudicial to the safety and interest of the state\u201d between Aug. 30, 2020 and Feb. 8, 2023.
\nOrlin Roussev, 45, Bizer Dzhambazov, 41, Katrin Ivanova, 31, Ivan Stoyanov, 31, and Vanya Gaberova, 29, all Bulgarian nationals who lived in London and Norfolk, were arrested by counterterrorism police in February this year.
\nThey did not enter a plea at this stage and were remanded in custody until their next appearance at London\u2019s Old Bailey court on Oct. 13.
\nRoussev, Dzhambazov, and Ivanova had already been charged with identity document offenses and are due to appear at the Old Bailey on Thursday over those allegations.
\nDescribing the charges, prosecutor Kathryn Selby told Westminster Magistrates\u2019 Court the defendants were accused of being part of an organized network which had carried out surveillance and hostile action on behalf of Russia against specific targets, including for potential abductions.
\nSelby said Roussev\u2019s home was the group\u2019s alleged operating hub in Britain, and said the network had been given tasking by a person known as Jan Marsalek.
\nMarsalek, the former chief operating officer for collapsed payments company Wirecard, is wanted by German police over alleged fraud and his whereabouts are currently unknown.
\nHe has not been charged with any crime in Britain but was named as an alleged co-conspirator in the charges against the five Bulgarians. The office of Marsalek\u2019s lawyer declined to comment. Britain has been seeking to take tougher action on external security threats and potential spies, and in July passed a national security law, aiming at overhauling its means of deterring espionage and foreign interference with new tools and criminal provisions.
\nAt the time, the government labelled Russia as \u201cthe most acute threat\u201d to its security.
\nThere has been no response from the Russian embassy in London to the news of the accusations.
\nLast November, Britain\u2019s domestic spy chief said more than 400 suspected Russian spies had been expelled from Europe, striking the \u201cmost significant strategic blow\u201d against Moscow in recent history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON Five Bulgarian nationals accused of being part of a Russian spying network in Britain, tasked with carrying out surveillance and obtaining information about targets, appeared by videolink in a London court on Tuesday. The three men and two women are accused of conspiring \u201cto collect information intended to be directly or indirectly useful to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-358524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n