German-language publications are investigating the unscrupulous actions of foreign secret agents services whose traces also lead to Bulgaria. What do we learn about the Bulgarian five in England, Jan Marsalek and the threats against Hristo Grozev?
Orlin Rusev and five other Bulgarian citizens have been spying for Russia for years, British investigators are convinced, quoted by the Second German TV station ZDF. And Rusev is in close contact with perhaps the most wanted man in all of Europe today: Jan Marsalek, the fugitive former manager of the collapsed Wirecard pyramid. The “Süddeutsche Zeitung“ (ZC), “Spiegel“ and the Viennese “Standard“.
Thousands of chats are being studied
British investigators have retrieved thousands of chats between Rusev and Marsalek, which are now being analyzed, including by investigative journalists. These chats show that Marsalek was indeed working for the Russian secret services. In one of them, he charges Rusev “to wash“ in Berlin, 20,000 in cash, which were then taken to the conspiratorial quarters in Vienna, where, for example, mobile phones of Austrian politicians stolen by other agents were found. About these phones, Rusev succinctly wrote to Marsalek: Collected. That is: “They are collected.“
In another batch of chats between Marsalek and Rusev, it is about a break-in at the Viennese home of investigative journalist Hristo Grozev, who for years has been involved in investigations into Russian secret service operations, including the assassination attempts against Sergei Skripal and Alexei Navalny. In the Viennese apartment, the burglars are looking for exactly one particular Grozev laptop, an IBM brand, which is seen in the Navalny documentary. They did manage to steal such a laptop and several blank flash drives, but according to Grozev, without any information on them. On the occasion of this action, the German Central Committee wrote:
„For Russia and personally for its president, this case is about treason, and the alleged traitor is risking his life. In this particular case, the victim of the break-in Hristo Grozev, a Bulgarian by birth, who at the time lived with his wife and their two children in Vienna, fell into disgrace with Putin. Grozev then worked as a journalist in the investigative platform Bellingkat – and has apparently entered the top list of Russia's state enemies.“
The threat against the Bulgarian journalist Grozev
The newspaper recalls that Grozev worked both on the case of the downed Malaysian passenger plane over Ukraine, and on the disclosure of a contract killing in Berlin, carried out by a Russian agent. ZC also recalls the participation of the Austrian agent Egisto Ott in the operation against Grozev, which we have already written about.
Grozev himself says on this occasion that as early as December 2021, he learned the following from a reliable source: “President Putin has tasked the FSB to find me and kill me.“ ZC also writes about the new facts surrounding the communication between the Bulgarian Orlin Rusev and the alleged Russian spy Jan Marsalek, who say that Marsalek and the Bulgarian five spied on Grozev, putting him in mortal danger. The media also described the chats between Marsalek and Rusev, also related to money laundering.
„Standard“ quotes the chats in which the two talk about “washers“, “Russian-Turkish“ contacts and “donors“. On the same topic, from the ZDF information, we also learn details: On November 17, 2022, Marsalek nervously wrote to Rusev: “You suggest we carry out the broadcast tomorrow, because we had sent the details “too late". To which Rusev replies: “Amateurs (…) Those idiots better come to Berlin Central Station tomorrow or to our hotel.“ Here's a confused reply from Marsalek, sent at two in the morning: “I must apologize for this disappointing behavior“.
Germany's security
The espionage affairs connected with Marsalek and the Bulgarian five in England, with Vienna and the threat to investigative journalist Hristo Grozev, which directly affect Germany, also reached the special Parliamentary Commission in the German Bundestag, which monitors the secret services. Its chairman, Konstantin von Notz, said: “It is quite obvious that we are dealing with a top Russian spy at Marsalek, who is directly involved in directing operational actions in the middle of Europe.“
ZDF wrote that these actions could have a real impact on Germany's security and again quoted von Notz as saying: “We are encountering the dimensions of an extremely extraordinary case of espionage, the likes of which we have not seen in recent decades”. According to him, this operation demonstrates “the scale and unscrupulousness of the actions of foreign secret services in Europe, in Vienna, in London and in Berlin.“