Russian spy ring was hired by US firm to help evacuation of Kabul
Six members of the FSB-led organisation, based out of a Great Yarmouth home, are being sentenced at the Old Bailey
www.thetimes.com
Russian spy ring was hired by US firm to help evacuation of Kabul
March 07 2025, 9.40pm GMT
A Russian spy ring helped with the evacuation of Kabul after being hired by a defence contractor working for the US government, it has emerged.
The spy ring, run from a guesthouse in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, was also involved in money laundering and the supply of diamonds in return for weapons in Africa, an Old Bailey sentencing hearing for six of its UK-based members heard on Thursday.
The Moscow-based head of the operation joked that he could even obtain a nuclear bomb for the right money.
Jan Marsalek, 45, who was working for the Russian FSB state security service and the GRU military intelligence agency, is wanted in Germany for a £1.6 billion alleged fraud after the collapse of the payments company Wirecard. Glimpses into his lifestyle in Moscow revealed parties with intelligence officers and naked girls, an attempt to get cosmetic surgery to hide his identity and an aim to “outperform James Bond”.
The court heard that Marsalek was approached about work in Afghanistan by Constellis, a company formerly known as Blackwater that was founded by Erik Prince, a close associate of President Trump. In August 2021 Marsalek told Orlin Roussev, the head of the spy ring in the UK: “Interesting request from our (sort of) friends at the CIA. They urgently need aircraft to fly out contractors from Afghanistan … Do you know anyone who’s a bit rogue and operates large-scale airplanes?
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“The objective is to evacuate about 1,000 Afghan nationals to Tirana, Albania. This is all agreed between the Albanian government and the US government. Also there are 80 US citizens and about 120 women who need to be evacuated separately.”
Roussev, 47, later claimed that a flight he organised left Kabul shortly before an Islamic State suicide bombing at the entrance to the airport on August 26 that killed 170 people. The US evacuated about 82,300 people from the airport between August 14 and 25, 2021.
Afghans at Kabul airport showing credentials to foreign forces.
There was chaos in August 2021 as desperate Afghans tried to get access to the airport to flee Kabul
AKHTER GULFAM/EPA
Roussev has admitted spying for Russia but the hearing was told he is claiming that he was “called upon and ready to assist western allies”. He told Marsalek in a message that he was on a call “dealing with the diamond guys in Africa”, adding later: “We will be transporting diamonds.”
Marsalek asked: “Who is this for in the end? Rebels or government?”
Roussev responded: “Allegedly only government but who knows, this is Africa — as in the movie Blood Diamond and Leonardo di Craprio [sic].”
Marsalek told him: “Can pretty much organise anything they need except nukes,” adding with a laughing emoji: “Even the nukes if they pay.” In other messages he claimed to be supplying weapons to Ghanaian peacekeepers in the Central African Republic.
In September 2021, Marsalek apologised for being out of touch, saying: “I was stuck between the mafia, half of Russia’s ambassadors, the GRU, a dozen naked girls and some deep-state guys who’s [sic] names no one knows who forced me to drink a bottle of gin.”
Roussev and five other Bulgarian members of the ring, including two women, were arrested in February 2023.