Two confessions

Bulgarian spy ring in the service of Marsalek?

The espionage activities in the service of Jan Marsalek (small picture) are said to have taken place in London as well as in Stuttgart, Vienna, Valencia and the Balkan state of Montenegro.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA/AFP/Police Munich/Handout, stock.adobe.com/Gualtiero Boffi)

A trial began in London on Thursday against three Bulgarians who are alleged to have spied for Russia - also on behalf of former Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek. They deny this. However, two other members of the spy ring have already confessed and are awaiting sentencing.

The indictment accuses the two women, aged 30 and 33, and a 39-year-old man, who all live in the UK, of spying on people - reportedly enemies of the Kremlin - and places. The espionage activities are said to have taken place in London as well as in Stuttgart, Vienna, Valencia and the Balkan state of Montenegro.

Jan Marsalek is said to have gone into hiding in Russia.

(Bild: APA/AFP/Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV, Bundeskriminalamt Wiesbaden, krone.at-Grafik)

"Considerable sums" for espionage activities
According to British investigators, the Bulgarians received some of their orders from the absconded Marsalek, who is believed to be in Russia. The former sales director of the former Dax group Wirecard is not a defendant in the trial.

The defendants are said to have received "substantial sums" for their activities between 2020 and 2023. According to prosecutor Alison Morgan, the defendants used a "sophisticated methodology". 

According to the prosecutor, the spy ring was allegedly involved in six major operations. Among other things, the US base "Patch Barracks" near Stuttgart was scouted out at the end of 2022. Another victim was the journalist Christo Grozev, who worked for the investigative website Bellingcat and reported on the poisoning of the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018, among other things. Roman Dobrokhotov, editor-in-chief of the investigative medium "The Insider", as well as the former Kazakh politician Bergey Ryskaliyev, who has since been granted asylum in the UK, and the Russian dissident Kiril Kachur were also targeted.

Investigative journalist Christo Grozev was among those targeted.

(Bild: APA/Getty Images via AFP/GETTY IMAGES/Roy Rochlin)

Women used as "honey traps"
The suspects had personally taken high risks, Morgan said. Among other things, they had talked about using the two women as "honey traps": In doing so, they would have made sexual contact with the victims in order to obtain further information. Although the defendants could now argue that they did not know what was really going on or that they had been misled, Morgan said, "it is inconceivable that they did not know what they were doing and why they were doing it."