Bulgarian investigative reporter and director of the Bellingcat investigative reporting group Christo Grozev is being required to move from Austria, his home of nearly 20 years, due to the alleged threat posed to him by the Russian security services, the Viennese daily Falter reported on Wednesday.
I believe that there are more Russian representatives, informers and henchmen in the city than law enforcement officer, Grozev told Falter.
The journalist was supposedly required to cancel his organized go back to Vienna from a trip to the United States after contacts in the intelligence world warned him he could be in risk must he return.
Grozev, 53, has played a leading function in a number of Bellingcats a lot of high-profile investigations, including that into the 2018 poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his child in the British city of Salisbury, and the 2020 poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on a domestic flight in Siberia.Russia positioned Grozev, who is formally Bellingcats executive director, on its desired list in December, stimulating outrage in Grozevs home country Bulgaria.
Im considered a criminal, but I cant defend myself since I dont know what for.
And apparently, they wish to signify [to me] that they understand precisely where I live, Grozev said in the Falter interview.
In July Russias Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed that Grozev had actually been involved in a foiled plot to hijack Russian fighter jets, though it did not state if it had eventually pushed criminal charges against the journalist in absentia.Grozev has denied the charges and implicated Russias domestic intelligence company of creating proof to support its claims.