5 suspected Russian spies to face espionage charges in London

Five suspected Russian spies—Orlin Roussev, Bizer Dzhambazov, Katrin Ivanova, Ivan Stoyanov, and Vanya Gaberova—are scheduled to face espionage charges at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, London, U.K., next Tuesday, according to a report released on Friday.

The five spies, who are Bulgarian nationals, were accused of conspiring to gather information that would be useful to an enemy between August 2020 and February 2020.

They allegedly worked for Russian security services to surveil targets in the U.K. and the rest of Europe.

During a search of properties occupied by the defendants in London and Norfolk, police found fake passports and other phoney IDs for the U.K.

Other phoney IDs were for Bulgaria, France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, and the Czech Republic.

Investigators believed that Roussev was the alleged leader of the spy ring that made the forgeries himself.

The spy ring was uncovered by the Counter-Terrorism Command of London’s Metropolitan Police.

Police in the U.K. previously charged three suspected Russian military intelligence officers with an assassination attempt by a double agent and his daughter with the nerve agent Novichok.

The Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich remained detained in Russia on espionage charges.