3 Bulgarians convicted of spying for Russia across Europe from base in U.K.

LONDON — Three Bulgarian nationals based in Britain were convicted on Friday by a London jury of spying for Russia on what prosecutors said was “an industrial scale.”

The trio was accused of putting lives in danger as they acted on orders on behalf of Russian intelligence to carry out surveillance across Europe between 2020 and 2023.

Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, were convicted Friday at London’s Central Criminal Court after a trial that began in November.

The three, who were tangled in sexual relationships with one of their handlers or each other, denied being in on the plot and claimed they didn’t know who they were working for or were lied to by their superiors.

Prosecutors said that they spied on a U.S. air base in Germany where Ukrainian troops were said to be training, and had discussed kidnapping or killing opponents of the Russian state.

They also allegedly tried to lure a Bulgarian journalist who uncovered Moscow’s involvement in the 2018 Novichok poisoning of a former Russian spy in Salisbury, England, into a “honeytrap” romance with Gaberova.

The ringleaders discussed robbing and killing Bellingcat journalist Christo Grozev, or kidnapping him and taking him to Russia, prosecutors said.

The spy ring also included two other defendants, ringleader Orlin Roussev and his underling Biser Dzhambazov. They previously pleaded guilty to espionage charges and having false identity documents.

Roussev, 47, was directed by alleged Russian agent Jan Marsalek, an Austrian national, who was in touch with Russian intelligence agencies, prosecutors said.