INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
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
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.
