On SpyCast: The so-called Minions, Putin's expendable spies
As of today, six Bulgarians spies working on behalf of Russia still await sentencing. Known as “the Minions,” a nickname coined not by outsiders but by the cell’s own leader, they operated from modest British suburbs and planned honeytraps, abductions, and murder across Europe.
The Minions were far from being elite professionals, and police described their base as “an Aladdin’s cave” of spy gear. Naturally, that included a stuffed toy Minion embedded with a surveillance camera.
But more importantly, the Bulgarian spy ring represents a shift in Russian tradecraft, shaped by mass diplomatic expulsions and growing international scrutiny. Russia “had hundreds of their diplomats, in other words, undercover intelligence officers, expelled from Britain and from Europe in the last few years,” said Gordon Corera, British author and co-host of The Rest is Classified podcast. “As a result, they’ve had to turn to other ways of doing it, to use proxies, to use groups like this Bulgarian group, the so-called Minions. That’s what they've been forced to do.”
I couldn’t help but crack a few jokes with Gordon, who I met a few years ago at the Aspen Security Forum, back before Russia’s sabotage efforts were taking root. And some of this is no laughing matter: The stalking of investigative journalist Christo Grozev. The surveillance of a U.S. military base in Germany that trains Ukrainians for the battlefield.
All six Bulgarians pleaded guilty. But will their jail time slow down Russia’s recruitment efforts? Doubtful.
Episode length: 27 minutes
Listen: On Spotify | On Apple Podcasts
Bulgaria was the center of the USSR's computer industry and manufactured the first socialist PC, the Pravets. Moscow charged the DS (Bulgaria's KGB) with stealing advanced technologies from the West during that period of time. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria's computer industry was privatized as the Memory Disks Equipment Company but was controlled and even staffed by the Military Counter Intelligence unit of the DS.
Even though Bulgaria was no longer "communist" after the dissolution of the USSR, the communist security and intelligence apparatus remained intact and in control of critical industries, and most importantly, retained their relationships with the KGB (FSB+SVR).
It's no surprise that Russia is using Bulgarians to conduct cyber espionage in the UK and elsewhere. The Eastern European criminal underworld are third-party contractors (often indirectly controlled by their respective IC's) that function as deniable assets and have legacy relationships with Russia. In summary, Bulgaria has a deep pool of tech talent that has been repeatedly contracted for cyber espionage by Russia for decades.
very interesting reporting. thank you