A journalist targeting Russian spy cells ran from a former hotel in Norfolk and said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered action against him.
Insider editor Roman Dobrokhotov was followed by Bulgarian spies from Europe who worked in Moscow, three of whom were convicted on Friday.
“I’m lucky to be alive,” Dobrokhotov told the BBC.
Russian nationals believe he and his investigative journalist Bulgarian Christo Grozev have been targeted for his propaganda to Russia. They revealed Russia’s role in a series of deadly events, including the 2018 nerve agent attack in Salisbury and the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020.
In December 2020, the day the investigative team Bellingcat published an exposé about naval poisoning, the man directing the Russian spy cell sent a message: “We are interested in a Bulgarian working for Bellingcat Christo Grozev.”
Jan Marsalek, who directed the spy ring on behalf of Russian intelligence, wrote that Grozev was “the main investigator in the Navy case.”
His friend and target Dobrokhotov said it was a moment when they became the main focus because Putin was upset about what was revealed.
“I think that’s Putin’s directness,” he said.
“Under this dictatorship, you will never take such political measures on your own. You will always have direct orders from the President.”
A message from Marsalek to Spy Orlin Roussev – he ran a British group from a former hotel in Norfolk, showing the inside knowledge to Putin’s thoughts. “I personally find Grozev not a very valuable target, but obviously Putin hates him very much,” he wrote.
Rome Dobrokhotov is the editor-in-chief of the survey website [BBC]
After 2020, spy cells follow Grozev and Dobrokhotov throughout Europe, monitoring them in planes, hotels and private property.
They discussed kidnapping and even killed men. Some say that Dobrokhotov was smuggled from a small boat on the Norfolk coast and then brought him back to Russia.
Dobrokhotov said it was obvious that this would lead to his death.
In January 2023, the month when police arrested British cell members, Dobrokhotov said he was “warned that I should not leave the country because it could be dangerous”.
He didn’t realize that the Bulgarian spies were approaching him in a flight that they saw his cell phone PIN.
Police remove Roman Dobrokhotov from a surveillance report [Metropolitan Police]
He believes the police action sent a signal.
“Vladimir Putin only does not understand the information in the words in the action,” Dobrokhotov said.
“So he understands information like Ukraine has long-range missiles. It’s information he can understand.
“It’s also something he can understand when his spy is arrested and imprisoned.”
He believes that Bulgarians working at normal work demonstrate the limitations of Russian espionage after so many professional spies were fired from the West, but spy cells like Bulgarians are equally dangerous.
Speaking about what prompted him, Dobrokhotov said he wanted to “change Russia” because he didn’t want to live in a country that “just because they’re doing news or criticizing the government to kill people.”
“Although we exist, it’s hard for Vladimir Putin to feel the power within the country,” he said, “We will be the ones he will work to eliminate the rest of his life.”
“Our situation is only possible with some of us or Vladimir Putin and his team.”
Katrin Ivanova, 33, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, were convicted of conspiracy Friday, while Roussev, 47, and Biser Dzhambazov, 43, had previously admitted. The sixth Bulgarian, Ivan Stoyanov, is 34 years old and feels guilty of spies. Ivanova was also convicted of possessing multiple false identity documents.
