An alleged Russian spy ring has appeared in court to face charges of conspiring to collect information useful to an enemy state. 

The five Bulgarian nationals, three men and two women, all living in the UK, are accused of gathering information between August 2020 and February this year.    

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) charged the following: Orlin Roussev, 45, of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, Bizer Maksimov Dhzambazov, 42 of Harrow, north London, Ivan Iliev Stoyanov, 31 of Greenford, west London, Katrin Nikolayeva Ivanova, 32, Ivan Iliev Stoyanov, 31 of Greenford, west London and Vanya Nikolaveva Gaberova, 29, of Euston, north London. 

The five defendants, appearing via video link from four separate jails, spoke only to confirm their names and date of birth at Westminster Magistrate’s court on Tuesday morning.  

Roussev, Dzhambazov, and Ivanova were previously charged on February 11 2023 with possession of false identity documents with improper intention under section 4 of the Identity Documents Act 2010, the CPS added. 

District Judge Tan Ikram remanded them in custody and scheduled a further hearing for October 13 at the Old Bailey. 

Kathryn Selby, for the prosecution said: “All five defendants have been charged with one offence of conspiracy to conduct espionage contrary to section 1 of the Criminal law act 1977. 

“This is an indictable only offence therefore it has to be sent to the Crown court 

“Given this has a national security backdrop it should be dealt in accordance with the terrorism protocol.

“People are aware that three of the defendants have already been jointly charged with an offence under the identity cards act.

“All five of them were arrested back in February this year for offences contrary to the official Secrets Act.”  

The court heard that all five defendants have EU settled status.   

There was no Bulgarian translator present for the hearing and no applications for bail were made.