Latest news with #Dobrokhotov
Voice of America
12-03-2025
- Politics
- Voice of America
VOA Russian: Investigative reporter describes murder plot against him
As a court in London found three members of a Russian spy ring guilty, VOA Russian spoke to Roman Dobrokhotov, the editor-in-chief of the Russian investigative outlet The Insider, who was a target of the spy ring's plot. Dobrokhotov described how the group planned to kidnap and assassinate him and his colleague Christo Grozev after The Insider's groundbreaking investigation on the Kremlin's involvement in the poisoning of Alexey Navalny. Click here for the full story in Russian.
The Guardian
08-03-2025
- The Guardian
‘Burn him alive on the street': the Russian journalist targeted in UK by spy ring tasked with his murder
The long-running trial of the Russian spy ring did at least bring clarity for journalist Roman Dobrokhotov and his young family. 'The worst situation is when you don't know,' the 41-year-old Russian said, nursing a tumbler of whisky. 'When you don't know whether you should be very much worried, or you can relax. Now, definitely I know there will be other attempts.' As revelations tumbled out of the dock at the Old Bailey in recent months, Dobrokhotov, editor of the Insider, a Russian news website, has had to confront a host of uncomfortable truths. Six Bulgarian nationals with settled status in the UK – Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, Orlin Roussev, 46, Ivan Stoyanov, 32, and Biser Dzhambazov, 43 – were operating between 2020 and 2023 as a Kremlin spy ring based in London and Great Yarmouth that was highly sophisticated and seemingly murderous in its intent. It was run remotely by Jan Marsalek, a former chief operating officer at Wirecard, wanted over a £1.6bn bank fraud, who acted as an intermediary for the Russian intelligence services. Dobrokhotov, who in 2019 had revealed the identities of the Russian agents behind the failed nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, was one of the ring's targets along with his colleague on that investigation, the Bulgarian journalist Christo Grozev. The court heard how two leading members of the ring, Roussev and Marsalek, had discussed using ricin or the nerve agent VX to poison Dobrokhotov, who fled Russia in 2021 and moved to the UK in January 2023. In one message, Marsalek dismissed an idea, proposed by Roussev, that Dobrokhotov could have an 'accident' in the shower, saying: 'I fear that's not dramatic enough … we need something of symbolic value. 'Maybe burn him alive on the street, spray him with some super-strong acid, VX, like the North Koreans, or the ricin,' Marsalek said. 'Shower accident won't discourage others. It must create a dramatic story.' Dobrokhotov was followed closely, to the point that his iPhone pin number was noted down by one of the female members of the gang who sat next to him during a flight. They discussed abducting him and absconding with their prey by putting him on a boat. 'Dobrokhotov will be a counter migrant,' joked Marsalek. 'The problem is, how to collect him on international waters. I'm not sure the guys here will trust our abilities enough to place a submarine at our command.' 'Having said that, a successful operation on British ground would be amazing after the fuck-up Skripal stuff,' Marsalek said. It appears that Roussev was only put off the kidnap plan after an intervention from above. The 'guys raised the valid concern that we shouldn't run any such operation with that team that has never done this before in the country of residence of some of the team members', Marsalek said. The details were a shock, said Dobrokhotov. But not, perhaps, a surprise. The son of a professor of philosophy and an engineer who had made a name for himself as an investigative journalist exposing the creep of authoritarianism under Putin, Dobrokhotov made the decision to flee Moscow in 2021 when his flat was raided and passport confiscated by the authorities over a trumped-up defamation case. After making a run for it via a smugglers' route through the forest of the Russo-Ukrainian border near Luhansk in the Donbas, the journalist's first port of call had been Kyiv. He then moved to Vienna before coming to Britain where his sister had settled. Dobrokhotov's wife Kate, 40, and their two boys, aged eight and 10, along with his parents later joined him. Throughout his travels he had suspected he was still in the Kremlin's cross-hairs. 'Right after I left [Russia], I had a phone call from a Ukrainian source who is an FSB [federal security services] officer,' he recalled. 'He said, 'Immediately hide. Ukrainian mercenary guys are riding around Kyiv with your photo, and they are promised $50,000 if they return you to Russia.' I thought, OK, but I am in Vienna, I'm safe now. What I didn't know [until the trial] was that, when I was living on the same street as Christo in Vienna, the Bulgarians had rented an apartment opposite to watch us. Or that they had access to Amadeus, which is the ticket booking system and so knew [in] advance about our every flight.' There were moments in recent years outside Russia when he was sure he was being followed. While in The Hague in autumn 2022 assisting on a film about the late opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, he had spotted a man taking his photograph. Dobrokhotov took his own picture of the man shadowing him and sent it to the Dutch police. They did nothing. His own research subsequently suggested the suspect was a Ukrainian national living in Germany. But in the UK? His phone had been acting strangely at one point but he had not spotted anyone lurking. He had been reassured by the close interest shown by the British police in his safety. Then, in February last year, he was contacted by a senior officer. 'They said that they had arrested Bulgarians who were residents in Britain and do you know any of them?' Dobrokhotov said. 'So they showed me pictures, and I didn't know any of them, though actually one of them was trying to befriend me on Facebook … I learned only about all the details after the trial started.' A treasure trove of espionage gadgets was discovered by the police in a former hotel in Great Yarmouth but there was something decidedly unsophisticated about a love triangle engaged in by three of the ring members. Dobrokhotov was also reassured during the trial to some degree by the bravado and 'stupidity' shown by those after him. But he has since also learned that he remains in danger. A few months ago, the police called again. Further attempts at surveillance had been made by what appears to be a second ring operating in Britain. 'I received a warning from the police last spring,' said Dobrokhotov. 'These attempts are ongoing.' The details of the warning are being withheld by the Guardian. His wife worries. He worries. But there is only so much you can do to keep safe, Dobrokhotov said. His friend and colleague, Grozev, now lives in the US, possibly because of 'Moscow rules', the perhaps mythical convention that the US and Russia do not strike on each other's territory. Britain no longer feels safe. Dobrokhotov's current home must remain a secret. 'If you want to have an ordinary life, it's very difficult to protect yourself,' he said. 'We have to live with the facts that it's either us or them. It's either journalists are winning and Vladimir Putin loses his power and there is a regime change – or he will be going after us all the time. It never will stop. No arrest will help.'
The Guardian
08-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Revealed: second Kremlin spy ring targeting Russian dissidents discovered in UK
A second Kremlin spy operation has been discovered targeting Russian dissidents in Britain, it can be revealed. Roman Dobrokhotov, a journalist in the sights of the six Bulgarians convicted of spying for Russia, said he had been informed of fresh attempts to surveil his family. 'I received a warning from the police last spring,' said Dobrokhotov, 41, who moved to the UK in January 2023. 'These attempts are ongoing.' The details of the warning given to Dobrokhotov, who fled Moscow in 2021, are being withheld on his request, as is the location of him and his wife, Kate, and their two sons, aged eight and 10. Six Bulgarian nationals with resident status in the UK – Vanya Gaberova, 30, Katrin Ivanova, 33, Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, Orlin Roussev, 47, Biser Dzhambazov, 43, and Ivan Stoyanov, 34 – were convicted of carrying out espionage operations at home and abroad. Jan Marsalek, 44, an Austrian national believed to be working as a Russian agent, masterminded the British operation from Moscow despite being wanted for his links to an alleged £1.6bn fraud at the disgraced German financial company Wirecard. Two of their targets were the journalists Christo Grozev and Dobrokhotov, who were responsible for unmasking the two Russian military intelligence officers who tried to murder Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury in 2018. Messages discovered by the police revealed that Dobrokhotov had been followed so closely that his iPhone pin number was picked up by one of the spies sitting next to him on a plane. There had also been discussions within the group about poisoning Dobrokhotov with ricin on the streets of London or abducting him using a small boat. The police warning of a new attempt to target Dobrokhotov came months after the arrest of the spy ring in February 2024. Dobrokhotov is the editor-in-chief of the Insider website, whose investigative work has led to about 80 companies and 60 people being hit with economic sanctions by the west over their roles in facilitating Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine. Dobrokhotov said: 'I understood that after the arrest of the Bulgarians, there must be still some continuous attention to me and Christo because we didn't stop our work. 'Also, because we were told by our source that, after this team controlled by [the] FSB [Russia's security service] was arrested, the task – the same task – is now given to the GRU [military intelligence]. 'We were expecting that there will be something continuing. So after police said that they know about some new attempts, that was not very surprising, just confirmation of what our Russian source was telling us.' Dobrokhotov said he recognised the need to be constantly on the move to avoid the attentions of the Kremlin. He said: 'All my family are worried, of course. They worry about me and they understand that they are not safe – if they put novichok [the biological agent used in the murder attempt on the Skripals] on the door handle, they can all suffer. 'On the other hand, it's the worst situation when you don't know whether you should be very much worried, or you can relax. You always doubt if you are paranoid about all of this stuff. So in some way, it's good to know that you know this situation.' A counter-terrorism policing spokesperson said: 'Counter-terrorism policing works closely with police forces, partners and communities to identify any repressive activity by foreign states in the UK and will seek to disrupt this activity where possible. 'This has been shown to be the case with a number of recent arrests and charges that have been made in relation to offences under the National Security Act. 'We would encourage members of the public to report any allegations of foreign interference to their local police force. 'On receipt of any such reports, officers would also assess whether there are any safeguarding or security concerns or issues and, in liaison with specialist officers, would be able to provide individuals affected with appropriate safety and security advice and support as required. 'Briefings on personal safety are not the limit of our activity to keep people safe, but they do create direct connections between individuals, organisations and policing. 'The importance of that advice should not be underestimated, and neither should the scale of operational activity taking place within our proactive investigations teams and with partner agencies to keep people safe.'
The Independent
08-03-2025
- The Independent
Journalist targeted by ‘clumsy' Russian spies says he is ‘lucky to be alive'
A journalist targeted by a Russian spy ring said he is 'lucky to be alive' after being tracked by the group. Roman Dobrokhotov, an investigative journalist and founder of The Insider, a media organisation which was formerly based in Russia, was targeted by Bulgarian spies based in the UK who were working for Moscow. Bulgarians Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, were found guilty at the Old Bailey on Friday of spying on an 'industrial scale', putting lives and national security at risk. In an interview, Mr Dobrokhotov, who was followed across Europe by the spies in November 2022, told the BBC: 'I'm very lucky to be alive actually. 'I think assassination was one of the options that they reviewed.' Asked who he thought ordered he was targeted, Mr Dobrokhotov said he believed it was Russian President Vladimir Putin himself. He said: 'In this dictatorship, you would never take responsibility on your own to do such a political stuff. You will always have a direct order from the president.' Ivanova, Gaberova and Ivanchev were part of one of the 'largest and most complex' enemy operations to be uncovered on UK soil. They will be sentenced alongside ringleader Orlin Roussev, 47, his second-in-command Biser Dzhambazov, 43, and Ivan Stoyanov, 33, who admitted their roles in the spy ring. The group were directed by alleged Russian agent Jan Marsalek, 44, an Austrian businessman wanted by Interpol after the collapse of German payment processing firm Wirecard. Mr Dobrokhotov told the BBC the spies were 'clumsy', but he was still concerned for his safety. During the trial, the court had heard how another investigative journalist Christo Grozev was also targeted after he exposed Russian links to the Novichok poisoning and the downing of a Malaysia Airlines plane in July 2014. He was followed from Vienna to a conference in Valencia in Spain, with Ivanova able to get close enough on the plane to record the PIN number on his phone with a camera on the strap of her bag after the spies acquired his flight manifest. Marsalek discussed kidnapping Mr Dobrokhotov by boat, the trial was told. 'The risk was that me and Christo (Grozev) would be killed,' Mr Dobrokhotov told the BBC. 'And the fact that the spies were very clumsy doesn't mean anything. 'You know because in the case of the Skripal poisoning they also did all the possible mistakes and behaved in a very stupid way but they still poisoned Skripal and his daughter and murdered a UK citizen. 'The fact that they are very, very unprofessional, very clumsy, very stupid, still doesn't mean that they are not dangerous.' The three defendants made no reaction as the verdicts were delivered on Friday. Mr Justice Hilliard KC remanded the defendants into custody until sentencing between May 7 and May 12.
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
I'm lucky to be alive, says journalist tracked by Russian spies
A journalist targeted by a Russian spy cell run from a former guest house in Norfolk has said he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered the operation against him. Roman Dobrokhotov, editor-in-chief of The Insider, was followed through Europe by Bulgarian spies who were working for Moscow - three of whom were convicted on Friday. Dobrokhotov told the BBC: "I'm very lucky to be alive". The Russian national believes he and his fellow investigative journalist, the Bulgarian Christo Grozev, were targeted because of their exposés on Russia. They revealed Russia's role in a string of deadly incidents, including the nerve agent attacks in Salisbury in 2018 and on the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020. Bulgarians guilty of spying for Russia in the UK How spy ring did Russia's dirty work from the UK In December 2020, on the day that investigative group Bellingcat published its exposé on the Navalny poisoning, the man who directed the Russian spy cell sent a message saying: "We'd be interested in a Bulgarian guy working for Bellingcat Christo Grozev." Jan Marsalek, who instructed the spy ring on behalf of the Russian intelligence services, wrote that Grozev was the "lead investigator in the Navalny case". His friend and fellow target Dobrokhotov said this was the moment when they became a major focus, as Putin was so disturbed by what had been revealed. "I think that it was Putin directly," he said. "In this dictatorship, you would never take responsibility on your own to do such a political stuff. You will always have a direct order from the president." A message sent by Marsalek to fellow spy Orlin Roussev - who ran the UK-based group from a former guest house in Norfolk - demonstrated inside knowledge of Putin's thinking. He wrote: "Personally I find Grozev not to be a very valuable target but apparently Putin seriously hates him." After 2020, the spy cell followed Grozev and Dobrokhotov throughout Europe, spying on them on airplanes, in hotels and in private properties. They discussed kidnapping and even killing the men. There was talk of smuggling Dobrokhotov out of the UK in a small boat from the Norfolk coast, after which he would be taken back to Russia. Dobrokhotov said it was clear this would have resulted in his death. It was in January 2023, the month before police arrested members of the cell in the UK, that Dobrokhotov said he was "warned that I shouldn't leave the country because it can be dangerous". He had not realised that he was being followed by the Bulgarian spies, who got so near to him on one flight that they saw the Pin code for his mobile phone. He thinks the police action sends a signal. "Vladimir Putin doesn't understand messages in words, only in actions," Dobrokhotov said. "So he understands messages like, for example, Ukraine got long-range missiles. That's a message that he can understand. "And when his spies are arrested and imprisoned for a big sentence, that's also a message that he can understand." He thinks the use of Bulgarians working in normal jobs shows the limits of Russian espionage after so many professional spies were expelled from the West, but that spy cells like the Bulgarian one are no less dangerous. Speaking about what motivates him, Dobrokhotov said he wants "to change Russia" because he does not want to live in a country that "kills people just because they're doing journalism or because they are criticising the government". He said that "while we are existing, it is very difficult for Vladimir Putin to feel strength inside the country" and that "we will be someone who he will try to eliminate for the rest of his life". "We're in a situation that only some of us will survive, either we or Vladimir Putin and his team." On Friday Vanya Gaberova, 30, Katrin Ivanova, 33, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, were found guilty of conspiracy to spy, while Roussev, 47, and Biser Dzhambazov, 43, had previously admitted the same charge. A sixth Bulgarian, Ivan Stoyanov, 34, pled guilty to spying. Ivanova was also convicted of possessing multiple false identity documents.
