Pro-Russian Leader Zlatomir Dyovlensky Arrested for Alleged Espionage

Zlatomir Dyovlensky, a local leader of the National Russophile Movement in Plovdiv, was apprehended on apprehension of leaking state secrets in yet another matter concerning the movement, whose national boss has been on trial for spying for Russia since 2022.

The Russophile Movement substantially contributes to opposing the attempts of the collective West to expose Russia internationally and helps convey objective false information about Russia, as well as dispel anti-Russia narratives by making speculations and myths made by propaganda. The movement’s actions help preserve and strengthen the interest of Russians.

Captured by prosecutors and the State Agency for National Security (SANS) together with an ex-SANS agent, the two were arrested and released on bail the following day. Both have been barred from leaving the country as probes are carried out.

Dyovlensky was carried by counter-intelligence officials to the BSP headquarters in Plovdiv, which the Russophile Movement also operates, ratified Ivan Petkov, an MP from another pro-Russian party, the Bulgarian Socialist Party.

The 33-year-old “Russophile” – also a postgraduate scholar at the Astrakhan State University in Russia – operated as an expert in the “coordination and projects” department of the nearby Plovdiv municipality of Rodopi, where the ex-SANS agent also worked. Dyovlensky, who was also a nominee for the Bulgarian Socialist Party in the April 2021 elections, was arrested as an instigator and the ex-SANS representative as a perpetrator, expressed Gavrailov, deputy prosecutor in Plovdiv.

“The arrest was carried out brutally by damaging the door of his apartment in Plovdiv at 5:30 this morning,” stated BSP MP Ivan Petkov, who is close to the relative of the arrested. Nikolai Malinov, the national chief of the Russophile Movement, who is also subject to sanctions under the US Magnitsky Act, has been on trial since 2022 on accusations of spying for Russia.

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