Christo Grozev is Chief Executive Officer of Bellingcat, beginning in January 2022. For many years, he was lead investigator with Bellingcat, focusing on security threats, extraterritorial clandestine operations, and the weaponization of information. His investigations into the identity of the suspects in the 2018 Novichok poisonings in the U.K. earned him and his team the European Prize for Investigative Journalism. He also authored, among other works, investigations into the 2016 Montenegro failed coup, the 2015 shelling of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the poisoning of a Bulgarian arms entrepreneur by GRU operatives, as well as the identification of key suspects in the MH17 downing. The Bellingcat investigation into the Berlin Kleine Tiergarten murder in August 2019, led by Christo, served as the basis for the indictment and final court verdict in the court case against the perpetrator, as well as the Russian state for its role as commissioner of the assassination. Christo also led the investigation into the nerve-agent poisoning of Alexei Navalny, which earned the joint investigative team the German Nannen Prize and two Emmy’s for investigative journalism. Christo has a degree in journalism and mass communication from the American University in Bulgaria, and law and economics degrees from IMADEC University in Austria. Prior to his role at Bellingcat, he managed a multinational media group with presence in 13 countries and spent several years living and working in Russia and Estonia, before moving to his current base in Austria.
