Five Bulgarians have been charged with spying for Russia in Britain.

The UK Crown Prosecution Service has charged five Bulgarian citizens with spying for Russia. transmits The Guardian.

Three men and two women, aged 29-45, are accused of allegedly “conspiring to collect information that may be directly or indirectly useful to the enemy, with the purpose of harming the security and interests of the state.” The collection of such information, according to investigators, was allegedly carried out by them from August 2020 to February 2023. Moreover, three of them were previously charged with possession of false identification documents.

All five will appear in court on September 26.

Bulgarian citizens were detained in the UK back in February, but known this became known only in mid-August. As the media wrote, they had been living in the UK for several years and periodically changed jobs in different areas. In particular, one of the men previously had experience doing business in Russia. Arriving in the UK in 2009, he worked as a technical specialist in the financial services industry. Before that, he said, he was also an adviser to the Bulgarian Ministry of Energy.

All five were released on bail and pledged to return in September. It was previously reported that all of them will appear in court only in January 2024. Currently, they have not admitted guilt.

At the end of August, the Swedish prosecutor’s office presented accusation against Sergei Skvortsov of espionage on the territory of the kingdom and the United States in favor of Russia. A 60-year-old man, a Swedish citizen and a citizen of the Russian Federation, was detained last November in Stockholm. According to the prosecution, Skvortsov was engaged in illegal intelligence activities from 2013 to 2022. He himself denies all charges.

14 August Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration of Poland Mariusz Kaminski reported about the arrest of two Russian citizens in the case of espionage. According to the authorities of the republic, the detainees allegedly distributed propaganda materials of the Wagner PMC in Krakow and Warsaw.