Three Bulgarian citizens suspected of secretly collaborating with Russia have been convicted of espionage.

This was reported by The Guardian.

This decision was made after a trial, during which it became known that they had been involved in a number of conspiracies across Europe, led by a fugitive from Moscow.

The jury at the Old Bailey deliberated for more than a day to reach a verdict in the case of the three Bulgarian citizens: Katrin Ivanova, 33, who worked in a laboratory, Vaniya Gaberova, 30, a beauty therapist, and Tikhomir Ivanchev, 39, a painter and decorator.

They lived and operated in the British capital, London, until they were detained.

All three, as it turned out later, worked for Russian intelligence and were junior members of a spy group ultimately led by Jan Marsalek, an Austrian businessman.

He fled to Russia in 2020 after the collapse of the company he helped run due to a €1.9 billion fraud.

The head of the spy network ordered his men, including Ivanova, to secretly collect the phone numbers of Ukrainian soldiers using a unique device similar to those used by the army.

It was believed that the Ukrainian military had been training at a US base in Stuttgart, Germany, and such equipment had never been used by the criminal underworld before.

As a reminder, the trial in the case of espionage in favor of Russia began in November 2024, after five Bulgarian citizens were detained in 2023.

According to the prosecution, a group of five Bulgarian citizens carried out six espionage operations in favor of Russia in the UK and other European countries from August 2020 to February 2023.

Earlier, Militarnyi reported that Finland was tightening security measures because of Russian spies who had intensified their activities during the deployment of NATO troops.