Bulgarian Journalist Honored for Exposing Russian Spy and Wirecard Scandal

Jerusalem, 30 September, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- Berlin (BTA) – Bulgarian investigative journalist Hristo Grozev will receive the “Journalist of the Year” award at the PRIX EUROPA festival in Berlin for his work on the discovery of the former director of the German payments company Wirecard, Jan Marsalek, wanted by the authorities in Moscow and his exposure as a Russian spy, the organizing committee of the festival, which will take place in Berlin from October 5 to 10, announced in a press release.

Together with an international investigative team, including the German media Der Spiegel and Zet DF, the Russian platform Insider, the Austrian newspaper Standart and the American television channel PBS, Grozev uncovered Marsalek’s hideout and managed to prove that he worked for the Russian secret services, the press release states.

Grozev specializes in exposing the machinations of Russia’s Federal Security Service. He played a key role in recreating the downing of a Malaysian Airlines passenger plane over eastern Ukraine by a Russian missile system in 2014, which killed 300 people, the press release added. He also played a crucial role in uncovering the attempted poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in 2018 and Alexei Navalny in 2020. Grozev has been under surveillance by a spy ring for years and is on a Russian wanted list. There are also specific plans to assassinate him.

Several hundred media professionals from across Europe will gather in the German capital to vote for the best European audio, digital, and video media productions of the year. A jury will decide who will receive the 14 prestigious trophies. This year, 585 productions were submitted for consideration, 162 of which, from a total of 30 countries, were nominated in the competition. The remaining winners will be announced on 10 October and the awards will be presented at a ceremony in Berlin.

The Europe Award 2025 is the 39th edition of the media festival, which is supported by an alliance of 24 European public media. Founded in 1987, the festival has become a pan-European platform for quality media content that promotes cohesion and European cooperation, the organizers note. The event is traditionally hosted by the German public media outlet Radio Berlin Brandenburg (Rundfunk Berlin Brandenburg) with the support of the local authorities in the state of Berlin.