Investigation correspondent
A journalist targeted a Russian spy cell from a previous hospitality house in Norfolk said he believed that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered the operation against him.
Roman Dubrokotov, editor -in -chief, was followed by, Through Europe from the Bulgarian spies who were working in Moscow Three of them were convicted on Friday.
“I am very lucky to be alive,” Dobrokhotov told the BBC.
The Russian citizen believes that he and his colleague in the investigation journalist, Christo Greziv, the Bulgarian, were targeted because of their exhibition on Russia. They revealed Russia’s role in a series of deadly incidents, including the attacks of the nerve agent in Salisbury in 2018 and in the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020.
In December 2020, on the day the Bellingcat Investigation Group published its exhibition on Navalny’s poisoning, the man who brought the Russian spy cell sent a message saying: “We were interested in a Bulgarian person working for Bellingcat Christo Grozev.”
Jean -Marsalik, who issued instructions to the espionage episode on behalf of Russian intelligence services, wrote that Greuziv was “the main investigator in the Navalny case”.
His friend and target colleague Dubrocotov said this is the moment when he became a great axis, as Putin was very annoyed with what was revealed.
“I think it was Putin directly,” he said.
“In this dictatorship, you will never take responsibility for yourself to do these political things. You will always have a direct matter from the president.”
A message sent by Marsalik to her colleague at the UK Roussev – who has managed the UK -based group from a previous guest house in Norfolk – the inner knowledge of Putin’s thinking. He wrote: “Personally, I find that Grozev is not a very valuable goal, but it seems that Putin is seriously hated.”
After 2020, the Grozev and Dobrokhotov spy cell throughout Europe followed, and spying on aircraft, in hotels and in private property.
They discussed the kidnapping and even killing men. There was a talk about the smuggling of Dubrocotov from the UK in a small boat from the Norfolk coast, after which it would be returned to Russia.
Dubrocotov said it was clear that this would have led to his death.
In January 2023, before the month that the police previously arrested the cell members in the United Kingdom, Dubrokotov said he “warned that I should not leave the country because it may be dangerous.”
He did not realize that he was followed by the Bulgarian spies, who approached him on one trip, they saw the pin code for his mobile phone.
Capital PoliceHe believes that the police procedure sends a signal.
“Vladimir Putin does not understand the messages with words, only in the procedures,” said Dubrokotov.
“So he understands messages like, for example, Ukraine got long -range missiles. This is a message that he can understand.
“And when his spies and imprisonment are arrested for a large sentence, this is also a message he can understand.”
He believes that the use of the Bulgarians working in regular functions indicates the boundaries of Russian espionage after the expulsion of many professional spies from the West, but decoding cells such as the Bulgarian cost are not less dangerous.
When talking about what he stimulates, Dubrokotov said he wants to “change Russia” because he does not want to live in a country “kills people just because they are doing the press or because they criticize the government.”
He said, “While we are present, it is very difficult for Vladimir Putin to feel the power inside the country” and that “we will be a person who will try to eliminate him for the rest of his life.”
“We are in a position not only some of us, either we or Vladimir Putin and his team.”
On Friday, Vania Gabrova, 30, and Catherine Ivanova, 33, and Thamir Ivanchif, 39, were condemned to conspire to spy, while Rousseff, 47, and Pedar Dhazmazov, 43, admitted the same charge. Bulgari VI, Ivan Stoyanov, 34, pledged to spy. Ivanova also convicted of having multiple fake identity documents.