Spy from Russia caught with "advanced technology" while monitoring Ukrainian forces at a base in Germany (photo).

A Bulgarian citizen, 46-year-old Russian spy Orlin Rusev, likened himself to the James Bond character "Q" while hiding in a guesthouse in the English town of Great Yarmouth, where he was preparing gadgets for abduction and surveillance operations. This was reported by the British tabloid Daily Mirror, citing a court statement.

In the coastal guesthouse, he concealed a plethora of gadgets and secret recording devices. Orlin Rusev told his handler that he felt like the character "Q" from the James Bond books and films as he prepared his "spy toys" for abduction and surveillance operations across Europe.

The "Bond" character "Q" was the head of Q Branch, the research center of the British Secret Service.

Rusev may have received instructions from handler Jan Marsalek, who is wanted for committing technical fraud amounting to around $2 billion related to the Wirecard company. Rusev pleaded guilty to managing a spy network on behalf of the Russians, but other members of the group deny the charges.

The Central Criminal Court at Old Bailey reported that a significant amount of surveillance equipment was found at Rusev's address in Great Yarmouth.

Even more equipment was located in a guest apartment in North London, shared by Katerina Ivanova and Bizer Dzambazov, two alleged members of the spy network.

Among the thousands of items discovered by detectives were a black cap with a hidden camera, a liter plastic Coca-Cola bottle containing a waterproof camera behind the label, and a surveillance camera. The spy concealed a micro SD card in a Minion plush toy in the apartment.

In the Haydee guesthouse in Great Yarmouth, there were 33 rooms, and inside three of them, there was a significant amount of IT equipment used by Rusev, the Old Bailey prosecutor reported.

Law enforcement seized 3,540 pieces of evidence from several addresses, including 1,650 digital pieces of evidence. Jurors were shown the "IMSI catcher" Razor II, a black metal box that intercepts mobile phone signals from nearby areas. It was valued at $147,000.

The Razor II was manufactured by an unknown producer and can be deployed anywhere. A less sophisticated system, "Stealth," priced at $50,000, was a black box the size of a pencil case that could be carried and hidden under outer clothing.

"Stealth" could be used to intercept or disrupt targeted mobile phone messages. It can identify individual phones by IMSI and IMEI numbers when used in conjunction with a Jugular 4 direction-finding device costing $18,500.

The spies intended to use all this equipment to eavesdrop on the phones of Ukrainian soldiers at a U.S. military base in Stuttgart, training to operate Patriot missile defense batteries. The information would have allowed them to track where rockets were launched from, but the men were arrested in February 2024, thwarting the plan.

The majority of the equipment was designed for recording video and audio: wristwatches, pens, ties, sunglasses, lighters, car key fobs, and jewelry — pendants with hidden cameras and microphones with SD memory cards, earrings with audio recording devices. Some of them contained SIM cards for communication and data transfer directly to another member of the spy network.

It should be noted that a Russian spy with an Israeli passport, Alexander Miroshnichenko, was detained in Kharkiv. He was identifying the locations of Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kharkiv region.