The United Kingdom has arrested 5 individuals on suspicion of being Russian spies.
The country had previously been the target of Russian operations, such as the successful assassination on Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 and the failed attempt on Sergei Skripal in 2018. The BBC reports:
The trio were among five people arrested in February on suspicion of an offence under the Official Secrets Act.
They were held by counter-terrorism detectives from the Metropolitan Police, which has national policing responsibility for espionage, and are due to answer police bail in September.
The individuals are Bulgarian immigrants. The United Kingdom is home to a large Eastern European immigrant population. While some are very anti-Russian, others do have cultural ties to Russia which makes them ripe for recruitment. CBS News says:
According to the BBC’s investigation, Roussev has a history of business dealings in Russia. The broadcaster also reports that the suspects had been living in the U.K. for years and had worked a variety of different jobs.
Dzhambazov and Ivanova moved to the U.K. a decade ago and ran a Bulgarian community organization including familiarizing immigrants with the “culture and norms of British society,” according to the BBC.
The United Kingdom has been the leading country pushing for support of Ukraine. This makes it a particularly important target for the Putin regime.
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