Investigative journalist called ‘modern-day Sherlock’ by Alexei Navalny on unsettling photos, reprisals and being exiled from Vienna

Christo Grozev was sitting in a New York cafe in February 2023, expecting to fly back to his home in Vienna that evening, when US law enforcement officials delivered some news that changed his life.

“I was told that it’s not a good idea for me to leave back to Austria, because there’s been some intelligence suggesting there’s a red team waiting for you,” said Grozev, a Bulgarian-born investigative journalist who has infuriated the Kremlin by exposing numerous Russian intelligence operatives in recent years.