A journalist aimed at a Russian spy cell run from a former guesthouse in Norfolk has said that he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered the operation against him.
Roman Dobrokhotov, editor-in-chief of the Insider, was followed by Europe by Bulgarian spies who worked for Moscow of whom three were convicted on Friday.
Dobrokhotov said to the BBC: “I am very lucky to live”.
The Russian National believes that he and his colleague research journalist, the Bulgarian Christo Grozev, were the target because of their exposes on Russia. They unveiled the role of Russia in a series of fatal incidents, including the nerve agency attacks in Salisbury in 2018 and on the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020.
In December 2020, on the day that research group Bellingcat published his exposé about the Navalny poisoning, the man who directed the Russian spy cell sent a message with the text: “We would be interested in a Bulgarian man who worked for Bellingcat Christo Grozev.”
Jan Marsalek, who instructed the spy ring on behalf of the Russian intelligence services, wrote that Grozev was the “main investigator in the Navalny case”.
His friend and colleague -target Dobrokhotov said this was the moment that they became an important focus, because Putin was so disturbed by what had been revealed.
“I think it's Putin immediately,” he said.
“In this dictatorship you would never take responsibility to do such political things. You will always have a direct order of the president.”
A message sent by Marsalek to colleague Spy Orlin Roussev – who led the group based in the UK from a former guesthouse in Norfolk – showed within knowledge of Putin's thinking. He wrote: “Personally, I don't think Grozev is very valuable, but apparently Putin hates him seriously.”
Roman Dobrokhotov is the editor -in -chief of the research website The Insider [BBC]
After 2020, the Spy Cell Grozev and Dobrokhotov followed throughout Europe, which she spied on aircraft, in hotels and in private property.
They discussed the kidnapping and even kill the men. There was talk of smuggling Dobrokhotov from the UK in a small boat from the coast of Norfolk, after which he would be returned to Russia.
Dobrokhotov said it was clear that this would have led to his death.
It was in January 2023, the month before the police arrested members of the cell in the UK, that Dobrokhotov said that he was “warned that I would not leave the country because it could be dangerous.”
He had not realized that he was followed by the Bulgarian spies, who came so close to him on one flight that they saw the pin code for his mobile phone.
Photos by Roman Dobrokhotov on board the flight were picked up by the police from a security report [Metropolitan Police]
He thinks the police action is sending a signal.
“Vladimir Putin does not understand messages in words, only in actions,” said Dobrokhotov.
“So he understands messages such as, for example, Ukraine has rockets long distance. That is a message that he can understand.
“And when his spies are arrested and imprisoned for a big sentence, that is also a message that he can understand.”
He thinks that the use of Bulgarians who work in normal jobs shows the limits of Russian espionage after so many professional spies have been driven out of the West, but that espionage cells such as the Bulgarian are no less dangerous.
About what motivates him, Dobrokhotov said that he “wants to change Russia” because he does not want to live in a country that “kills people alone because they do journalism or because they criticize the government.”
He said that “while we exist, it is very difficult for Vladimir Putin to feel strength in the country” and that “we will be someone he will try to eliminate for the rest of his life.”
“We are 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 Ivananchev, 39, were found guilty of conspiracy to spy, while Roussev, 47 and Biser Dzhambazov, 43, had previously admitted the same complaint. A sixth Bulgarian, Ivan Stoyanov, 34, committed espionage. Ivanova was also convicted of possessing several false identity documents.
