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BBC News
24-03-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Two women who spied for Russia tracked down and named by BBC
Two women who were part of a Russian spy network run from the UK are named for the first time today by a BBC nationals Cvetelina Gencheva and Tsvetanka Doncheva took part in elaborate surveillance operations against people spied on by the woman answered questions when contacted by the Gencheva, an airport worker, hung up when contacted by phone, and said she did not want to comment on the case in response to a subsequent Doncheva denied being herself and walked away when approached near her home in Vienna, other Bulgarians are awaiting sentencing in London for their roles in spying for Russia as part of the cell. Police described the network as a "highly sophisticated" operation that threatened lives. Three pleaded guilty, admitting knowing they were working for Russia, while three more were convicted this month after a trial at the Old Bailey having failed to persuade the jury that they didn' cell was directed from abroad by Jan Marsalek, originally from Austria, who was a business executive in Germany who became a Russian intelligence asset. The cell's targets included journalists who have investigated Russian espionage. One, Roman Dobrokhotov, told the BBC he believed Vladimir Putin was ultimately responsible. The court heard about two mystery women who took part in surveillance operations in BBC tracked down and confirmed the identities of both women through open source digital research and speaking to sources. The mystery airport worker Ms Gencheva, who lives in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, exploited her work in the airline industry to obtain private flight details of people targeted by the followed the people onto planes and were booked in nearby seats, getting so close as to see what was being typed into their targets' mobiles phones, even at one stage identifying a Pin number for a phone belonging to journalist Roman Gencheva was part of a team sent to Berlin to spy on Mr Dobrokhotov, and she was a member of chat groups with three of those convicted of spying in the UK case - cell leader Orlin Roussev, Biser Dzhambazov and Katrin Ivanova - which were used to co-ordinate the provided flight details for journalist Christo Grozev, and was tasked with gathering as much travel information as possible on another target of the cell, Russian dissident Kirill the Old Bailey trial, the mystery airline worker was known as "Cvetka" or "Sveti". The BBC first identified Ms Gencheva through her social media profiles. On Facebook, she had interacted with Katrin Ivanova and Biser then found she was an airline to her Linkedin profile, she has held positions in ticket sales for travel companies. Bulgarian company filings say she is the sole owner of International Aviation captures of travel data found on a hard drive belonging to cell leader Roussev were from airline industry software known as "Amadeus".On her LinkedIn profile, we found Ms Gencheva noted her proficiency with the the BBC's research identified Ms Gencheva, a source confirmed to the BBC that she is known to the Bulgarian security services as being connected to the spy network. She is not charged with any contacted Ms Gencheva on a Bulgarian phone number she uses for real estate work. She hung up when informed the call was from BBC News and was being recorded, not even waiting for an explanation of what we were calling response to a letter setting out the evidence relating to her, she said she did "not wish to comment on the case" and did not consent for her name to be used. Writing in Bulgarian, she claimed not to speak English well. However, her public LinkedIn profile lists her English ability as "full professional proficiency" and says she has studied in English to degree level. The woman in Vienna Ms Doncheva helped spy on the investigative journalist Christo Grozev in Vienna, occupying a flat opposite where he lived and operating a camera that took images of his was paid to conduct an anti-Ukraine propaganda campaign, which included putting stickers on locations including Vienna's Soviet war memorial and was intended to make supporters of Ukraine appear like BBC identified Ms Doncheva through her social media profiles after the Old Bailey trial heard about a "Tsveti" who had worked with the cell. Sources in Austria then confirmed her Vienna, she met at least three of those convicted of spying in the UK case - Vanya Gaberova, Biser Dzhambazov and Katrin Austrian officials, including the head of the Secret Service Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, were among those selected for surveillance by Ms Doncheva, alongside the Austrian investigative journalist Anna Thalhammer, who has written about Russian Doncheva, who is unemployed, was arrested by Austrian police in documents first reported by the Austrian magazines Profil and Falter, and later seen by the BBC, reveal she is "strongly suspected of having committed the crime of secret intelligence to the detriment of Austria".She told investigators she conducted surveillance after being asked by long-time friend Vanya Gaberova - one of the six Bulgarians awaiting sentencing. She said Gaberova provided her with a list of names, addresses and initially told police she had been misled by the others, who first told her they were conducting a "student project" and later that they were working for Interpol. But Austrian investigators are recorded as saying it is "incomprehensible" that Ms Doncheva believed such "dubious stories".The documents say the intelligence cell in which Ms Doncheva operated was ultimately controlled by Jan Marsalek from Moscow on behalf of the Russian intelligence services and that evidence seized by investigators shows she was contracted by Marsalek and the UK cell leader Orlin Roussev. The documents say Marsalek directed that Anna Thalhammer be targeted. Ms Doncheva admitted to police she had photographed the journalist's then workplace and sought to watch her from a nearby Thalhammer, now editor of Austrian news magazine Profil, told the BBC she was first told about being spied on last year by police, and she is now aware of being watched for some time."She obviously sat in front of the office in a very nice fish restaurant. I really can recommend it. She complained that it's too expensive, that she needs more money. She got that money."She says "that woman" also spied on a number of "high-ranked people".Ms Thalhammer does not know where else she was followed, but that some of her sources were identified and attempts were made to break into their says "Vienna is the capital of spies" but no one has been sentenced in the city for espionage and the "law here is great for spies"."I'm frustrated and I'm also honestly a little bit scared," she added. "I live alone with my daughter. It's not so nice to know that the state doesn't take care if somebody is threatening journalists, politicians or anybody else." A prolific social media user - even her cat has a TikTok account - Ms Doncheva posted a photo of herself on Facebook in a Vladimir Putin T-shirt in 2022 and 2023. When someone commented that in Russia a large percentage of women want to have Putin's baby, Ms Doncheva replied saying not only in Russia, followed by a lip-licking Doncheva denied being herself when approached by the BBC in a Vienna street and refused to answer questions, but we have verified that the woman was indeed Ms Doncheva. When approached, she was wearing clothes and carrying items seen in Ms Doncheva's social media posts: a distinctive blue tracksuit, a pair of glasses, and a patterned mobile phone case. We also observed her entering Ms Doncheva's registered home address less than 20 minutes after she denied being Ms has not responded to a letter offering her a chance to two women worked alongside the six Bulgarians who were convicted of conspiring to spy for Russia. A cache of almost 80,000 Telegram messages between Roussev and his controller Marsalek was recovered by UK messages revealed multiple operations carried out by the cell in the years before February 2023, when their activities were disrupted by UK-based spies even targeted Ukrainian soldiers thought to be training at a US military base in Germany. Roussev and Marsalek discussed kidnapping and killing journalists Christo Grozev and Roman the six spies convicted in the UK, Ms Doncheva and Ms Gencheva are not in custody and have not been convicted of any Austrian public prosecutor's request for pre-trial detention of Ms Doncheva was rejected and she was court documents state there is "no risk" of Ms Doncheva absconding because she is "socially integrated" in the country and cares for her mother, and that a risk of further crime is not particularly high given the imprisonment in the UK of others involved,Ms Thalhammer told the BBC she "can't understand" why the person who spied on her was released."Maybe [they] shouldn't believe everything a spy says." She said the Austrian secret service thinks there are other spy cells and that their activity has continued after the arrest of the six Bulgarians in the Gencheva has remained free in Bulgaria, publicly presenting herself as an experienced airline and travel industry being contacted by the BBC, Ms Gencheva changed her profile name on Facebook and LinkedIn. She continues to list her proficiency with the Amadeus airline software.
BBC News
09-02-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Devolution gets chilly response from street with five councils
"They don't know anything about running anything, they couldn't run a bath."Russell Pickin is a not a man to mince his words and when it comes to the idea of devolution, a planned major shake-up of local government, he was not holding back."I think it's a dreadful idea. They can't look after themselves as it is. If it's all lumped into one, it's going to be even worse."In the government's eyes, streamlining councils would make life simpler for people like Mr Pickin, who lives on Uttoxeter Road in Blythe Bridge, Staffordshire. Due to current council boundaries in the county, bins on a mile-long stretch of the street are collected by two different councils, depending on which side of it you a total of five councils are involved with providing other services to residents - from housing to play areas, car parks to social care and road Westminster, there's a simpler way - merge the smaller district councils with county councils and create one single body for about every 500,000 people; a unitary authority to look after government says that devolution, its plan to transfer powers away from London and also simplify local government, would help drive economic Mr Pickin is not alone in not being sold on the idea. Fellow Uttoxeter Road resident Debbie Robinshaw lives on the side that falls under Staffordshire Moorlands District Council for her bins."My sister, she lives just down the road, and she's with Stafford Borough Council. It is a bit strange," she told the Robinshaw said she received a letter from each council about how the local authorities would become "joined up" under the government's she went on to say there was not much explanation and she did not understand was more concerned what this would mean for her household garden waste, which currently is collected by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, without any extra charge, over and above council the road, for homes under Stafford Borough, they pay an annual fee for the service. "We're regarded as the urban fringe of the Staffordshire Moorlands and we're very happy with that," said another resident, Leslie thinks it would be easier, from a bureaucratic point of view, to amalgamate but adds that one size does not fit said: "I'm not aware of any problems that arise from the fact there are so many councils here at all, and doesn't that allow for a bit of competitiveness?" The government has written to all ten of Staffordshire's councils advising them to submit their proposals for reorganisation by November. Devolution in Staffordshire could see one or possibly two unitary authorities replacing the current eight district councils in the county.A mayor might also oversee them and make decisions over issues such as housing, growth and transport far the reorganisation plan has ruffled feathers among some local politicians. There was a backlash from the Conservative group in the Staffordshire Moorlands as Tory MP Karen Bradley argued residents did not want to be a "Greater Stoke-on-Trent".Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, meanwhile, is one of those eight districts that could face being effectively abolished under the authority's Conservative leader Simon Tagg firmly nailed his anti-merger colours to the mast, saying: "Politicians from much larger unitary authorities are more remote from their communities."I doubt that a larger authority, three or four times the size of Newcastle, would prioritise the borough as we do now."Stoke-on-Trent City Council's leader Jane Ashworth, Labour, had this to say: "We support the government's devolution agenda."It is right that decisions about big issues – like economic development, infrastructure and skills – are made by locally-elected representatives who know their communities, rather than Whitehall bureaucrats."She added: "Local government reorganisation isn't something we requested as part of this process, but it does give us all a chance to reduce overheads, leverage economies of scale, increase our powers, and get the best services for all our residents."Staffordshire County Council was "focused on maximising the benefit of any change for our residents and businesses", said its Conservative leader Alan White, who added the authority would "update and involve people as we move through the process".Back on Uttoxeter Road, the street may be separated by bin collections, but it seems residents are a little more united in their view - they like their councils just as they are. Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
05-02-2025
- General
- BBC News
Norfolk book found in Connecticut is returned to Swaffham
A book taken from a library in Norfolk has been returned after it was mistakenly handed in to another library in the copy of Animal Ark ended up at Norfolk Library in Connecticut - more than 3,000 miles (4,800km) from where it was borrowed in was brought home by a Norfolk holidaymaker who had it brought to his attention during a trip across the pond."Quite how someone got confused and returned it to the wrong place, we have no idea," Swaffham Library said on Facebook. "Oh, and there's the fact it's literally thousands of miles away and across an entire ocean. "But still. It made it there, and it has now made it back!" Ann Havemeyer, the director of the US library, said the book had been dropped off in a returns drawer outside the building."We had no idea and we still don't know who put it in the book drawer, and we were kind of perplexed about what to do," she told the Havemeyer said staff "couldn't believe it" when a man and his sister from Norfolk, England, later turned up by sheer conversations with a librarian, it was agreed they would return it to its rightful Yun Ling, who has worked in Swaffham for 14 years, said it was "lovely to see" the book back where it belonged."I was amazed that it came back in one piece," she added. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
