An alleged spy has told jurors she did not know a man she was tasked to follow across Europe was a “good person” who had uncovered Russian links to the Salisbury attack.
Bulgarians Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, were allegedly part of a group which carried out surveillance on opponents of the Russian state between August 30 2020 and February 8 2023.
Giving evidence in her defence, Ivanova claimed she was deceived by her partner Biser Dzhambazov, 43, and Orlin Roussev, who have pleaded guilty to spying for Russia.
Cross-examining on Monday, Alison Morgan KC suggested Ivanova was a “good actress”, capable of lying “easily” to others.
The prosecutor cast doubt on the defendant’s claim that she was kept in the dark about the operations by Dzhambazov and Roussev.
Ms Morgan said: “This person you’ve been in a relationship with for 17 years and this other person who paid the deposit on your house who you considered to be a close friend, they used you for the best part of three years?
“You were all deceived?
“None of you knew this was all about Russia?”
One of the targets was Bellingcat journalist Christo Grozev who had been awarded for his work uncovering Russian involvement in the 2018 Novichok attack in Salisbury, the court heard.
Ms Morgan suggested that Mr Grozev would have been of particular interest to Russia and asked: “What was it about Mr Grozev you didn’t like?
“Going to Vienna, Valencia, Montenegro, following this person around, why?”
Ivanova told jurors she had been told fellow Bulgarian Mr Grozev was “corrupt” and wanted to expose him as a “hypocrite”.
She told jurors: “I was being told by Mr Dzhambazov…he was a hypocrite.
“The purpose of surveillance was to prove he was a hypocrite by following him.”
Ms Morgan suggested that the defendant was an “intelligent” woman and would have known from initial research that Mr Grozev investigated Russian authorities.
“One of the things he had investigated was the Salisbury attack in this country, you knew that didn’t you? It’s a disgraceful event,” she said.
The defendant denied it, saying she only became aware of the Salisbury poison attack “more closely” after she was arrested.
She told jurors: “I wasn’t interested in politics, Russian agents, Novichok.”
The prosecutor asserted: “Mr Dzhambazov was not sending you as a lone female off to Vienna with no idea why she was there or what she was really doing there.
“He wouldn’t have done that to you.”
Ms Morgan pointed out the deployment was costing hundreds of pounds a day, adding: “You knew he was of interest to Russia.
“He was exposing Russia left, right and centre, wasn’t he?”
Ivanova replied: “I didn’t know about all these things.
“I purely believed what I was told and that was my mistake.”
Ms Morgan suggested Mr Grozev was “a good person doing a good thing” and asked if the defendant had apologised to him for following him around Vienna.
She went on to suggest, as time went on, the money got “bigger and bigger and bigger”.
It came to the point when the team was offered £700,000 to “land” Russian dissident Kirill Kachur in Montenegro, Ms Morgan said.
Referring to messages about the operation, she said: “If you could capture him you were told it didn’t matter what happened to him in the process, you were told if you could get him as a team £700,000.
“At no stage did you say ‘what are we doing?’ The message says, ‘it doesn’t matter if he gets killed in the process?'”
Ivanova said the message came only after they had finished looking for Mr Kachur.
All three defendants deny the charge of conspiracy to spy between August 30 2020 and February 8 2023.
Ivanova has pleaded not guilty to a second charge of possession of false identity documents with improper intention under section 4 of the Identity Documents Act 2010.
At the time of the alleged offences, Ivanova was living in Harrow, north-west London, Gaberova was living in Euston, north London and Ivanchev was living in Acton, west London.
