Acton Linked to Alleged Russian 'Honeytrap' Plots
Local beautician accused of trying to woo investigative journalist
Vanya Gaberova. Picture: Vanya Gaberova/Facebook
December 3, 2024
An Acton beautician is among a group of people on trial at the Old Bailey accused of working for the Russians in a plot to undermine people the Kremlin wished to discredit.
30-year-old Bulgarian national Vanya Gaberova and her Acton based decorator boyfriend, 39-year-old Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, are accused of involvement with a spy ring that carried out six operations. She had been running the Pretty Woman salon on Churchfield Road and described herself as an award-winning specialist in lashes and extensions. Along with five others, she was charged with espionage offences in September 2023.
The jury was told that the network was equipped with sophisticated devices to enable intelligence gathering including hidden bugs and jammers. It also had 495 SIM cards, 221 mobile phones, 11 drones, 75 passports and 91 bank cards in various names.
The court was shown a series of messages between Rupert Ticz, the pseudonym of Austrian national Jan Marsalek, who is accused of masterminding and funding the operations, and Orlin Roussev. They discussed engineering a fake romance between Gaberova and Bellingcat investigative journalist Christo Grozev who is aged 64. The Bellingcat Group have been involved in a series of exposes of illegal Russian activities including revealing the identities of the men behind the Salisbury Novichok attack and confirming that it was Russian-backed militia that downed a Malaysia Airlines plane in July 2014.
Vanya Gaberova with awards she won working as a beautician. Picture: Facebook
Ms Gaberova allegedly flew to Valencia as part of a team to monitor Bellingcat journalists including founder Eliot Higgins, who were attending a conference at the Palace Hotel.
She had invited Mr Grozev to be a Facebook friend and, on 28 September 2021, Roussev told Marsalek that he was ‘hooked’ and in love with Gaberova. He said the time had come to arrange a date and said that Gaberova would be ‘up for that’ and said, “that girl is red hot, she is a swinger too.”
Marsalek said that he had run honeytrap operations before and there was a risk of the woman falling in love with the target, but Roussev assured him this would not happen and that he was ‘using the wrong type of girls’ and that Gaberova was ‘very assertive and strongly independent’.
It is alleged that Marsalek and Roussev ultimately intended either to rob Mr Grozev or kidnap him and taking him to Moscow.
No date ever actually took place and Mr Grozev told the court that he only recognised Gaberova from social media.
Gaberova is also accused of being involved in surveillance operations covering Kazakhstan dissident Bergey Ryskaliyev at One Hyde Park in Knightsbridge and Warwick Chambers.
Pretty Woman on Churchfield Road. Picture: Google Streetview
46-year-old Roussev of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and 43-year-old Biser Dzhambazov have already pleaded guilty to conspiring to spy for Russia and possessing fake identity documents.
Bulgarian nationals Gaberova and Ivanchev are accused of being part of the network along with 33-year-old Katrin Ivanova.
Ivanova is accused of being involved in a similar operation against the UK-based Russian journalist Roman Dobrokhotov. The court was told that she sat next to him on a plane and managed to capture his iPhone PIN.
Both Gaberova and Ivanova had been in a relationship with Dzhambazov, with Gaberova later becoming involved with Ivanchev.
They are denying a charge of conspiracy to spy between 30 August 2020 and 8 February 2023.
The case continues.
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