"Not a nuclear physicist": they describe her as a simple girl without special knowledge and education, but it turns out that she worked as a Russian agent in Vienna for years. What is known about the Bulgarian Tsvetanka Doncheva? Alexander Detev tells:
Tsvetanka Doncheva - a Bulgarian emigrant in Vienna, an opponent of vaccines and Covid measures, an admirer of Vladimir Putin and the far-right Austrian politician Herbert Kickl. A former cleaner, recently unemployed - or not quite. Because it turns out that for three years, Tsveti, as she prefers to be called, has been working as a Russian agent.
"She followed me for months"
According to the Austrian services, Tsvetanka Doncheva has participated in a number of activities. She has stuck stickers near landmarks in Vienna - such as the Monument to the Soviet Army, which aim to instill in them that Ukrainians are Nazis. She has also written similar posts on social networks.
According to the information of the investigators and her testimony, however, Tsveti has also carried out more serious activities. She has been following the editor-in-chief of the leading investigative magazine "Profil" Anna Talhamer. As well as the head of intelligence Omar Hadjavi-Pirkner. She has also filmed the Bulgarian investigative journalist Hristo Grozev, and even rented an Airbnb in exchange for his apartment. A complex spy saga carried out by a fairly ordinary person.
"I've known since the summer that I was being followed", Anna Thalhammer tells DW. "The services informed me that my laptop and phone were supposed to have been stolen and taken to Moscow by a spy cell led by Jan Marsalek. I've written a lot about him." The journalist is also working on exposing other Marsalek agents in Austria - former intelligence officers Egisto Ott and Martin Weiss.
"In December, I already received more details - that it was about Mrs. Doncheva, who had been following me for months, to my workplace, to restaurants. I have no idea what else she was doing. There are many inquiries about me in the public registers, we are currently checking who made them," says Thalhammer.
But how did a seemingly simple girl end up being part of such a spy network?
"She was constantly writing nonsense on Facebook - pro-Putin, Russia and blah blah. But more like a typical deluded person - from this group, susceptible to propaganda," Plamen, who was her employer at a cleaning company in Vienna, told DW.
"She is not a nuclear physicist"
The woman who was exposed as a Russian agent worked for Plamen for a short time about ten years ago. At that time, she was also dating a friend of his. The man is surprised that she could do such activities. "To be honest, she is not a nuclear physicist. She didn't speak any languages, I don't think she even spoke Russian," he recalls. But there is something about her that puzzles both him and her ex-boyfriend. "We discussed with him that she was extremely active on social media, she was on Facebook all day. We don't know - neither I nor he - if she worked. We thought she was on welfare or her family supported her", he adds.
Her acquaintances in Vienna follow her social media profiles. During the 2020 pandemic, she first started spreading conspiracies about the virus, and then against vaccines. Over the years, she has also shown sympathy for the leader of the Austrian Freedom Party, Herbert Kickl, as well as for Russian President Vladimir Putin. She gets into heated arguments with people who defend pro-European positions - something that was previously atypical for her.
Before the court in Vienna, Doncheva claims that she actually had no idea what she was doing. She was attracted to her friend Vanya Gaberova and Biser Dzhambazov. Dzhambazov is alleged to be Gaberova's partner and one of the leaders of a spy cell of Bulgarians in London who worked for Russia. The two told her that they supposedly worked for Interpol. Gaberova herself claimed during the court cases in London that Dzhambazov also lied to her that he worked for the international organization. The couple was convicted of espionage for Russia in London, along with four other people, with Dzhambazov himself pleading guilty. All of these people are connected to the network of Austrian businessman Jan Marsalek. He disappeared in 2020 after being accused of serious abuses at the company Wirecard, of which he was CEO. He is believed to have fled to Russia.
Tsvetanka Doncheva also confessed, official reports in Vienna show. The court detained her in December, searched her home and found evidence of the illegal activity she had been carrying out, and then released her. But why? "I don't understand this either. She tells an adventurous story - that she doesn't know who I am, nor who Hristo Grozev or Mr. Hadzhavi-Pirkner are. Apparently she has never used Google", says Anna Thalhammer. "It's crazy - to follow someone for so long and not check who they are. Is the judicial system really so naive that it thinks how to catch a spy and he will tell the truth?"
How Russian agents are recruited
A simple, ordinary girl, without any special knowledge or education, who is constantly on social networks - this is how her acquaintances describe Tsvetanka Doncheva. But why would such a person be interesting to Marsalek's network? Her acquaintance from London, Vanya Gaberova, has a similar profile. "People who know Vanya describe her as an extremely quiet and naive girl", Vasil Hristov, a Bulgarian journalist in the UK, told DV. "She runs a beauty salon in London. According to her clients, she used to say that she didn't know who Vladimir Putin was and wasn't interested in politics", he added.
Years later, however, she found herself convicted of espionage. "According to a number of experts, the intelligence services purposefully recruit ordinary people who don't attract attention. Vanya's profile fits perfectly into this framework," explains Hristov, who is also the chairman of the Association of Foreign Journalists in London.
One thing is clear: Doncheva is not the only one, and she won't be. "According to the authorities, there are more cells. If we follow the work of the Russian services, the FSB usually has proxies who lead different cells. The idea of this structure is that if one cell burns out, another one is activated", explains Anna Thalhammer. And Bulgarians apparently often turn out to be suitable for this job. "It seems that these are not well-trained spies, but criminals who carry out orders. Bulgarian names regularly appear in relation to Russian spy networks - there is obviously joint work between criminal networks in Bulgaria and Russia", adds the editor-in-chief of "Profil".