Exposing Putin's spies: Grozev's daring quest in "Antidote"

A decade ago, Christo Grozev's career revolved around managing various European media companies. With considerable fortune, contacts, and influence, he joined the investigative group Bellingcat in 2015, where he investigated Russian activities, including the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

In subsequent years, the Bulgarian journalist tracked the activities of the Federal Security Service, exposing over 300 Russian agents involved in incidents such as the poisonings of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, Alexei Navalny, and Vladimir Kara-Murza. As he tells James Jones's camera in "Antidote," his list includes 5,000 of Putin's spies. However, he never suspected he would one day investigate a planned assassination attempt on his life.

On November 26, in the UK, a trial begins for five Bulgarian spies working with Jan Marsalek, who had been recruited by Russia and had been tailing Grozev, his family, and his associates for two years. Their mission was to eliminate him. As revealed by the documentary's director during a meeting at the Watch Docs festival in Warsaw, one of the agents, just two days before her arrest, reviewed a beauty salon online near Grozev's London home. Uncovering her by Bellingcat journalists was remarkably simple because she wrote Google reviews for every hotel she stayed in.

While watching the documentary, which at times resembles a compelling spy thriller (for example, during the orchestration of a country escape for a Bellingcat informant, a Russian chemist working on prohibited poisons and biological weapons), one might wonder how it is that Grozev and his colleagues expose the regime's crimes instead of the special services. Journalists' proficiency in using publicly available online information and data from the dark web often surpasses that of intelligence agents. Grozev doesn't hide the fact that MI6 employees respect him and eagerly exchange information with him.

When someone dedicates themselves to uncovering hidden crimes, questions naturally arise about the personal costs they incur. Grozev's family is divided—his father and son greatly support him, while his wife questions the risk to one's life in the name of truth.

At the end of 2022, Grozev's name appeared on a list of foreign agents hostile to Russia. While in the US, Grozev was warned not to return to Europe. Viewers might recall a scene where he calls his father to inform him he turned back from the airport because he was told they would certainly want to kill him upon landing. "What now?" asks the father, and the son answers without hesitation: "I will keep chasing them."

Just a few days later, Grozev's father stopped answering the phone. Grozev couldn't visit him or send relatives to his father's home. After notifying services, it turned out that the father's body was found in a state suggesting third-party involvement. Immediately following the autopsy, the body was cremated without the family's consent, and toxicology tests were inconclusive. Thus, the son had only one option left—to conduct another personal investigation to discover how his father died and whether he fell victim to his professional activities.

Apart from portraying an outstanding journalist who also appeared in the Oscar-winning documentary "Navalny," director James Jones also focuses on Vladimir Kara-Murza and his family. The wife of the Russian journalist and oppositionist states in the film that it was thanks to the Bellingcat group that they confirmed how Kara-Murza had been poisoned twice. Although his family obtained asylum in the US, Kara-Murza returned to Russia in April 2022, where he was accused of treason and sentenced to 25 years in a maximum-security penal colony.

Publicizing his case had the desired effect—on August 1 of this year, as part of a prisoner and spy exchange between the US and Russia, 24 people, including Kara-Murza, were freed. "Antidote" concludes with a scene filmed after the original production's completion—the wife and children of the Russian oppositionist speaking to him by phone from the Oval Office alongside President Joe Biden.

However, this is not the end—life has written another chapter into James Jones's film. The director announced in Warsaw that in January, he would film additional material for "Antidote." Viewers are set to learn details regarding the mysterious circumstances of Christo Grozev's father's death.