Alleged Russian spy says suspicions first raised at base training Ukraine forces
Alleged Russian spy says suspicions first raised at base training Ukraine forces
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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.
