Locals in her circle say Bulgarian beautician Vanya Gaberova would buy Red Bull, water and cigarettes from a shop across the road from her salon in London every morning
A woman suspected of being a Russian spy slotted seamlessly into a cosmopolitan London community, say the people who knew her.
Locals in her circle say Bulgarian beautician Vanya Gaberova, 29, would buy Red Bull, water and cigarettes from a shop across the road from her salon Pretty Woman, in Acton, West London, every morning. On lunch breaks she often walked a few metres to the Portuguese Vilamoura cafe.
There she would sip a latte and usually eat a cheese baguette, said cafe manager Tiago Nogueria. He added: “She was a lovely woman, very discreet, very polite. But what I did find strange was her boyfriend â she was far more attractive than him.
“She wanted to buy the flower shop nearby but that fell through. I wouldn’t have suspected her of being a spy but if she was, she was a good one.” Gaberova is understood to have opened her salon with a boyfriend before the Covid pandemic.