Bellingcat’s Grozev forced to leave Vienna due to potential threat of Russian secret services

Christo Grozev, an investigative journalist and the director of Bellingcat, was forced to leave Austria, his home of nearly 20 years, due to security threats, the Bulgarian journalist has told Falter, as per The Moscow Times.

“I suspect that there are more Russian agents, informers, and henchmen in the city than police officers,” Grozev said.

Grozev was going to return to Vienna after a trip to the US, but had to change his plans. His contacts in the intelligence world warned him he could be in danger should he return.

The Bulgarian journalist became famous in Russia for investigating the poisoning of Alexey Navalny. Bellingcat, The Insider, CNN и Der Spiegel did a joint investigation, led by Grozev, which revealed that the FSB, Russia’s Security Service, was allegedly behind the poisoning.

Russia’s Interior Ministry put Grozev on its wanted list for “spreading fake news about the Russian army” in December 2022.

The FSB claimed last July that Christo Grozev was working for Ukraine’s intel and helped them plot a theft of Russia’s military aircraft. The FSB believed that Ukraine’s intelligence had tried to recruit several Russian pilots in exchange for “a 2 million dollar reward and the citizenship of a EU country”.