A recently uncovered Kremlin spy operation has emerged, reportedly targeting Russian dissidents residing in Britain. Roman Dobrokhotov, a journalist kept under surveillance by the six Bulgarian nationals recently convicted of spying for Russia, has disclosed that there are ongoing attempts to monitor his family.
Dobrokhotov, who relocated to the UK in January 2023, stated he received a police warning last spring about the surveillance efforts. Details of the warning, as well as the whereabouts of him, his wife Kate, and their two young sons, are being withheld at his request.
The six Bulgarian nationals—Vanya Gaberova, Katrin Ivanova, Tihomir Ivanchev, Orlin Roussev, Biser Dzhambazov, and Ivan Stoyanov—have been convicted for carrying out espionage operations both domestically and internationally. The alleged mastermind behind the operation, Jan Marsalek, an Austrian suspected of working for Russia, orchestrated the plot from Moscow despite being wanted for his connection to a £1.6 billion fraud.
The targets of the operation included journalists who exposed the identities of the two Russian military intelligence officers responsible for the attempted murders of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury in 2018. The surveillance against Dobrokhotov was so invasive that his iPhone PIN was reportedly overheard by a spy sitting next to him on a flight. There were also discussions within the spy group about the possibility of poisoning him with ricin or kidnapping him.
The police warning concerning a new attempt to target Dobrokhotov came months after the February 2024 arrest of the spy ring. As the editor-in-chief of the Insider website, Dobrokhotov’s investigative work has led to economic sanctions on numerous individuals and companies allegedly facilitating Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. He anticipated continued surveillance due to the ongoing nature of their investigative work.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/08/revealed-second-kremlin-spy-ring-targeting-russian-dissidents-discovered-in-uk
