An alleged Russian spy told her best friend to post “far-right extreme” Ukrainian stickers on a Jewish museum, a court has heard.
Vanya Gaberova, 30, is accused of being part of a spy ring which targeted people and places of interest to the Russian state over three years.
The Old Bailey heard Gaberova asked her best friend, named Tsveti, to place stickers around Vienna in late June 2022.
Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said on Friday: “The idea was to put these stickers in locations where it would seem like the extreme right-wing of the Ukrainian military was being supported.”
Some featured the logo for the “far-right extreme” Ukraine-based force Azov, the court heard.
Another showed a pig with the word “Russian” on it with a large line struck through.
Her Russian spy lover Biser Dzhambazov, 43, who falsely claimed to be an Interpol policeman, asked her to involve her friend, the defendant claimed.
Gaberova gave Tsveti instructions via text but insisted to jurors that she was only “passing on messages” from Dzhambazov.
Dzhambazov wanted pro-Ukrainian stickers and graffiti to be spread in various European cities as a favour he owed someone, the defendant claimed.
Spy chief Orlin Roussev and alleged Russian agent Jan Marsalek were also sending messages to each other about the Vienna job but Gaberova has repeatedly said she did not know of the two men at the time.
Gaberova, from Euston, has denied conspiracy to spy between 2020 and 2023 and has insisted that she was lied to by Dzhambazov.
Dzhambazov, from Harrow, and Roussev, 46, from Great Yarmouth, have previously admitted plotting to spy.
One target discussed for the June 2022 stickering was the Jewish museum in Vienna.
Another was the Bellingcat office in the same city, the court heard.
Jurors were previously told that the alleged spy ring targeted a journalist who worked there, Christo Grozev, who uncovered Russian involvement in the 2018 Salisbury Novichok poisoning.
His address and two neighbouring streets in the Austrian capital were also suggested as sites to put stickers on.
Gaberova asked Tsveti to post stickers in the Russian quarter too.
Ms Morgan said: “I’m saying this is what’s being done on behalf of Russia in these European cities, you knew that.”
The defendant responded: “That’s not true, I didn’t know anything, where it’s coming from or who is it.”
This came three months after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and Ms Morgan said one of the Russian president’s “biggest justifications” was “that Ukraine was full of Nazis” and that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “was a Nazi”.
Asked what she thought the impact would be of putting far-right symbols on a Jewish museum, Gaberova said: “What I think? This is nothing related to me, I was the person who just passes the messages.”
Gaberova told jurors she did not know what the Azov and Russian pig stickers meant.
Texts between Roussev and Marselek said stickers must be carefully placed “to look like real Ukrainian supporters” were putting them around Vienna, Ms Morgan told jurors.
One message between the two men said “journalists are rats, but not stupid”, the court was told.
Gaberova’s texts to Tsveti were also specific, including the number and type of sticker for each site – instructions she said came from her boyfriend.
Her messages with Tsveti appeared to become fractious and the prosecutor suggested that they show “the real you, Ms Gaberova”.
Ms Morgan later suggested that the precision Roussev and Marselek demanded is “why you’re being so tough and mean to your best friend who was just trying to get it right”.
The defendant, who spoke softly wearing large black glasses and her hair in pigtails, said: “I don’t talk to my best friend like this.”
Tsveti asked her friend for an advance payment and said she otherwise will “have no money for her birthday” and not enough for bills, Ms Morgan paraphrased.
Gaberova texted: “Look, in the way I am the same with everyone with whom I work and I don’t mix personal relationships with things related to work. Our policy is such that we pay for work delivered.”
Her best friend became concerned about safety, the messages suggest.
Tsveti said: “There are cameras in these places and they want me to stick to glass and doors. This is super risky for me and to be honest it is not worth the money because there are serious laws (here).”
The defendant replied: “Just spoke to my guy and he was very angry he told you that not everything is at any price and for you to decide where to put what.”
She told her that payment is varied because “riskier” actions are rewarded with a bonus.
“If necessary take more photos,” Gaberova said.
When her friend later asked “what do you need”, the defendant said: “God I am going to shoot myself.”
“These 1000 stickers at yours what are they for,” Tsveti said, adding: “How can you say you have no idea.”
Gaberova’s ex-boyfriend Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, of Acton, and Katrin Ivanova, 33, from Harrow, have also pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to spy.
Ivanova was Dzhambazov’s long-term partner and she has pleaded not guilty to a second charge of possession of false identity documents.
The trial continues.
