Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today was recently

described as just a Bulgarian nerd with a laptop. Now, the nerd in question is Christo Grozzev, lead

Russia investigator of Bellingat, which has made headlines in recent years for its deep dive

digital investigations largely based on open source material

which have exposed the truth behind a host of military and intelligence operations around the world

primarily focusing on Russia. The description of Grozef as a Bulgarian nerd came from the now jailed

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. He worked with

Grozef on an extraordinary investigation which uncovered the Russian agents responsible for poisoning

Navalny with Novichok nerve agent. The film of that expose recently won an Oscar and made

Grozef more of a public figure. And that isn't necessarily a good

thing for the Bulgarian journalist and radio station owner as a result of his work on Russian

operations, not just the Navalny poisoning, but the background to the downing of the MH17 passenger

jet over Ukraine in 2014, the poisoning of former KGB agent Sergei Scripal in England,

and now the Russian military assault on Ukraine, he has been declared a wanted man in Moscow.

He recently quit his home in Vienna for safety reasons and is now in the United States.

That move will doubtless fuel persistent allegations from his critics that his

forensic open-source journalism neatly serves the interests of Western powers and that Bellingat has

enjoyed funding either directly or indirectly from Western governments. In a world awash with

information and disinformation, does Christo Grozzev's digital detective work

come with an ideological agenda.

Well, he joins me now from Washington.

Welcome to Hard Talk.

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