A glamorous beautician who ran a London salon called “Pretty Woman” is among five Bulgarian nationals being charged with spying for Russia in the UK.
Vanya Gaberova, 29, is among a group accused of “conspiring to collect information intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy for a purpose prejudicial to the safety and interest of the state,” the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Thursday.
She was spying for at least two-and-a-half years, the CPS said — shocking those who knew her as the “very gentle and polite” boss of the “Pretty Woman” salon in west London.
“She was very timid, discreet,” Tiago Nogueria, the manager of a Portuguese restaurant across the street from the salon, told the UK paper.
“I wouldn’t have suspected her of being a spy but if she was, she was a good one.”
Gaberov was arrested in February under the Official Secrets Act. Prosecutors on Thursday said that she and four others — Orlin Roussev, 45, Bizer Dzhambazov, 41, Katrin Ivanova, 31, and Ivan Stoyanov, 31 — were being charged with conspiracy to conduct espionage.
As well as running the salon, the accused spy won a number of awards.
In 2019, the glamorous brunette scooped up two prizes at the Grand Balkan Lash and Brow Championships.
Gaberova also won awards in Russia’s Beauty Battle competition in 2020 and picked up 15 prizes for lash work at the 2020 Ukrainian Lash and Brown Championships.
Roussev, Dzhambazov, and Ivanova had already been charged in February with being in possession of false identity documents, officials said.
During a court appearance in July, prosecutors said that searches of properties in London and Norfolk associated with the trio of suspects had turned up 34 ID cards, some of which were suspected to be falsified, from the UK, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece and the Czech Republic.
The arrests followed an investigation by the London Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command.
The Bulgarian nationals are suspected of working in a spy cell that conducted surveillance on targets in the UK and Europe on behalf of Russia’s security services between between Aug. 30, 2020 and Feb. 8, 2023.
One of their operations allegedly took place in Montenegro and involved the creation of forged documents for journalists, including one featuring a photo of Ivanova, reported BBC News.
Roussev was said to be the leader of the spy ring who allegedly ran espionage operations out of a guesthouse in Great Yarmouth and passed the gathered intelligence to his handlers in Russia.
Roussev has lived in the UK since 2009 and previously worked in financial services, before starting a business specializing in the interception of electronic signals, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Dzhambazov and his girlfriend Ivanova moved to the UK from Bulgaria a decade ago and shared a home in Harrow.
Dzhambazov made a living as a driver for hospitals, while Ivanova worked as a laboratory assistant for a medical business.
The pair also ran a community organization helping fellow Bulgarian expatriates.
All five suspects are due to appear at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.
Last November, Britain’s domestic spy chief said more than 400 suspected Russian spies had been expelled from Europe, striking the “most significant strategic blow” against Moscow in recent history.
British police have previously charged three Russians, who they say are GRU military intelligence officers, with the 2018 attempt to murder former double agent Sergei Skripal with the military-grade nerve agent Novichok.
With Post wires