Alleged Russian spy says suspicions first raised at base training Ukraine forces
Bulgarian Katrin Ivanova has claimed she was deceived, betrayed and controlled by her long-term partner Biser Dzhambazov.
A woman accused of spying for Russia has told jurors she began questioning her “real purpose” at a US Army base believed to have been used to train Ukrainian soldiers on the Patriot missile system.
Bulgarians Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, were allegedly part of a group which carried out surveillance on places and people of interest to the Russian state between August 30 2020 and February 8 2023.
Ivanova has claimed she was deceived, betrayed and controlled by her long-term partner Biser Dzhambazov, 43, who has admitted being in on the plot.
In late 2022, she began questioning what she was doing for the first time on the way to Patch Barracks in Stuttgart, southern Germany, the defendant said.
She told jurors: “When we was walking from the hotel to the barracks, this is when I started questioning exactly what was going on.”
Cross-examining on Tuesday, prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said: “You know it’s an army barracks. What is it that worries you?”
Ivanova replied: “I was questioning what is the real purpose, why am I going to take a picture of that base?”
Ms Morgan said it was publicly known the barracks were being used to train Ukrainian forces and it was believed that involved the use of the Patriot missile system.
The defendant told jurors that although she had looked up the barracks, she did not know those details.
Ivanova denied being “a stupid person”, but said she was under the “control” of her older partner who was “everything” to her at the time.
She said: “I started the relationship with the person I most trusted since I was 17. He was never physically abusive.
“I can say now I was in an abusive relationship. That person was controlling me without me realising.
“I was being controlled by someone who was 10 years older than me. When I came to this country I came alone with him. My family was back home, my friends was back home.
“He not only became my family and friend at that time, he became everything for me.”
Ivanova denied he prevented her from doing internet searches or using her phone – or even engaging in sexual relationships with other men.
Ms Morgan reminded the defendant of her earlier evidence that she had been “heartbroken” to learn in 2021 that Dzhambazov was with her co-defendant Gaberova when she thought he was seeing a doctor in Bulgaria.
The defendant agreed, saying: “He betrayed me. He was in a relationship with another woman for 18 months. My only partner was Biser Dzhambazov.”
Ms Morgan asserted that phone evidence revealed that he knew she was having relationships with other men at the same time.
The prosecutor said: “You are asking the jury to believe you were desperately upset Mr Dzhambazov was in Bulgaria with Ms Gaberova but you shared you were in relationships with other people.”
Ivanova said: “I was in an open sexual relationship with the knowledge. I don’t go behind Mr Dzhambazov’s back to sleep with another man.
Having an 18-month long sexual relationship was “something completely different”, she said.
Ivanova added: “When both of us was being arrested, me and Vanya, we both refer to Biser as our boyfriend. You cannot put those two things on the same scale.”
Ms Morgan said: “You were in a relationship with Mr Dzhambazov, it was you and him against the world and the great betrayal was he was with Ms Gaberova?
“So this controlling man did not mind you having sexual relationships with other men and you shared the details together.”
Ivanova replied: “That’s correct. It is not a secret.”
Jurors have heard that Dzhambazov and Orlin Roussev have admitted conspiracy to spy for Russia.
Ms Morgan asked Ivanova: “It’s only when you’re outside Patch Barracks you have any suspicions at all about Mr Dzhambazov and Mr Roussev and what is really going on in this conspiracy?”
The defendant replied: “That’s correct. I never challenged him, yes.”
Ivanova, Gaberova and Ivanchev deny conspiracy to spy between August 30 2020 and February 8 2023.
Ivanova has also pleaded not guilty to a second charge of possession of false identity documents.
At the time of the alleged offences, Ivanova was living in Harrow, north-west London, Gaberova was living in Euston, north London and Ivanchev was living in Acton, west London.
