British authorities have released and deported to Bulgaria two of the six Bulgarian nationals convicted of spying for Russia, after the pair completed the mandatory half of their prison sentences, according to British and Bulgarian media reports carried by Novinite on 11 July. Ivan Stoyanov, 33, and Vanya Gaberova, 30, were sentenced in 2025 for their roles in what prosecutors described as one of the largest Russian espionage operations uncovered in the UK in recent years.
The manner of their release is causing as much anger as the release itself. Several of the people the ring targeted, among them the investigative journalist Christo Grozev, say they were never informed the two had been freed, and found out from the press. The Telegraph ran the story under the headline "Labour freed Kremlin spies without warning victims".
Who Came Home, and Who Is Still Inside
Stoyanov admitted conspiracy to commit espionage and received five years and three weeks. Gaberova, a beautician who worked in northwest London (the Daily Express called her the "Queen of lashes", while other British tabloids noted Stoyanov's past as an MMA fighter), was sentenced to six years, eight months and three weeks. Under the court's ruling, both became eligible for deportation once they had served half their terms.
The other four are serving longer sentences:
- Biser Dzhambazov: 10 years and two months
- Katrin Ivanova: nine years and eight months
- Tihomir Ivanchev: eight years
- Orlin Rusev, identified as the group's leader, was also convicted as part of the operation
Collectively, the six received prison terms totalling about 50 years.
A Network Allegedly Run Through a Former Wirecard Executive
According to prosecutors, the ring carried out surveillance operations across the UK and Europe, monitoring journalists, Russian dissidents, political figures and Ukrainian military personnel. The network was allegedly directed by Jan Marsalek, the former Wirecard executive accused of acting on behalf of Russian intelligence.
There is a distinctly Bulgarian symmetry to the case that the British coverage tends to skip: the ring was Bulgarian, and so is its best-known target. Grozev is a Bulgarian investigative journalist, head of investigations at The Insider and formerly the lead Russia investigator at Bellingcat, whose work helped unmask the suspects in the 2018 Salisbury poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal. His pursuers and he grew up in the same country; the spying just happened on British soil.
The Targets Found Out From the News
Grozev did not hide his frustration at learning of the deportations through media reports rather than official channels. "Just found out that 2 of the spies who last year received long sentences in Britain for spying on me and @Dobrokhotov and plotting to kidnap or murder us, have been set free by the UK after serving their mandatory half-sentence. I wish someone had bothered to inform the targets," he wrote.
The political row in Britain followed quickly. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp accused the government of failing to notify victims: "Apparently, they care so little about the victims of Russian spying operations on our soil that they don't even bother to tell them what is happening in their own cases."
What Happens Now They Are Back
What legal position Stoyanov and Gaberova occupy now they are in Bulgaria remains unclear, and no Bulgarian authority is quoted in the reports addressing it. Whether they face any monitoring, restrictions or further proceedings here has not been stated.
For British expats in Bulgaria this is one of those rare Saturdays when the news cycle back home and the one here collide head-on: the same two names leading the UK papers are now, quietly, somewhere in the country you live in. The kafene conversation and the WhatsApp group from home will, for once, be about the same story, and the honest answer to the obvious question, where are they and what are they allowed to do now, is that nobody has said.