BBC: UK arrests three Bulgarians suspected of spying for Russia

The UK has arrested three Bulgarian nationals on charges of espionage for Russia, the BBC reports.

The defendants were detained back in February and have remained in custody since.

The suspected spies’ names are Orlin Roussev, Bizer Dzhambazov, and Katrin Ivanova, All three have long been UK residents.

The police discovered fake documents of nine countries in their possession: UK, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, and Czech Republic.

Roussev moved to the UK in 2009 and worked as a technical specialist in financial services, the BBC reports. According to his LinkedIn profile, he later owned a business “involved in signals intelligence, which involves the interception of communications or electronic signals”. Roussev also claims that he once was employed by the Bulgarian Energy Ministry.

Dzhambazov and Ivanova are described as a couple by their neighbours. They moved to the UK around nine years ago and chaired a community organisation which introduced Bulgarian immigrants “culture and norms of British society”.

They also worked in electoral commissions on polling stations where Bulgarians living abroad could vote in national elections.

Their neighbours say that after the arrest of the couple, the police searched their house for around a week.

All three defendants will stand trial in January.

The British counter-terrorism police announced in February that the number of espionage-related cases (particularly for Russia, China, and Iran) rose by four times in the past few years.