Alleged Russian spy cell in U.K. that plotted to kill Christo Grozev also discussed kidnapping, disfiguring, and murdering investigative journalist Roman Dobrokhotov

British prosecutors say a Russian spy cell operating in the U.K. plotted to kidnap investigative journalist Roman Dobrokhotov and smuggle him abroad to the Russian military. The BBC reported that Jan Marsalek (the fugitive boss of a German tech company now acting as a Russian agent) instructed spy ring leader Orlin Roussev to develop plans in August 2022 to abduct The Insider editor-in-chief Dobrokhotov “on behalf of the Russian security services.” These revelations come in a case that last month revealed a similar murder plot against Dobrokhotov’s frequent collaborator, investigative journalist Christo Grozev.

The two men devised plans to use a “fishing boat” to escape with their captive, reasoning that the British government was doing “nothing” to stop small boats. In messages read to a jury in a U.K. court this week, Roussev and Marsalek also discussed ways to poison Dobrokhtov “using ricin or the nerve agent VX,” saying such an attack “must create a dramatic story.” “Maybe burn him alive on the street, spray him with some super-strong acid,” Marsalek suggested in one message, according to The Telegraph.

At one point in their correspondence, Marsalek told Roussev that “a successful operation on British ground would be amazing after the fuck-up Skripal stuff,” referring to the botched assassination attempt in March 2018 to poison former British double agent Sergei Skripal, which led to the death of British national Dawn Sturgess, who unknowingly recovered the nerve agent used against Skripal and his daughter. (Dobrokhotov’s news outlet, The Insider, worked closely with Bellingcat researchers to identify the Russian agents responsible for what became known as the Salisbury Poisonings.)

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According to the BBC, prosecutors have presented jurors at London’s Central Criminal Court with evidence that five Bulgarian nationals were involved in “six operations against individuals and places of interest to the Russian state over nearly three years.” 

Roussev and another man in his cell, Biser Dzhambazov, have admitted conspiracy to spy for Russia. Three other defendants in the case maintain their innocence. The criminal charges against most of these individuals first became public knowledge in September 2023. Last month, in November 2024, British prosecutors revealed that the defendants had also planned to kidnap and kill investigative journalist Christo Grozev.