One of the most dramatic
Russian espionage cases in Britain has concluded with guilty verdicts.
Three Bulgarian nationals associated with
Wirecard fraud mastermind Jan Marsalek, who settled in Russia in 2020,
have been found guilty of espionage. These convicted spies
carried out a surveillance campaign against Bulgarian-born Bellingcat journalist Christo Grozev, who exposed grizzly details about Russia’s 2020 poisoning of opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
Despite the exodus of Kremlin-connected Russians from London and the stiffening of Britain’s National Security Act in 2023, the threat of Russian espionage looms large. In October 2024,
MI5 chief Ken McCallum warned that
Russian intelligence agencies were on a mission to create “sustained mayhem on British and European streets.” McCallum asserted that Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) had
carried out arson attacks and sabotage operations in Britain as revenge for British support for Ukraine.
How does Russia carry out espionage on British soil?
Through a wide variety of conventional and unexpected means. The most predictable stream of espionage runs
through the scaled-down Russian Embassy in London. In May 2024, Britain expelled the Russian Embassy defence attache for being an undeclared military intelligence officer.
Russian diplomatic properties Seacox Heath in Sussex and the Trade Defence Section in Highgate historically served as launchpads for Russian spying operations.
Another form of espionage results from the
recruitment of disgruntled British government employees. In February 2023, Royal Air Force (RAF) veteran David Smith
was jailed for thirteen years for passing on the names, phone numbers and addresses of his colleagues at the British Embassy in Berlin to a Russian general. A MI5 sting operation derailed Smith’s scheme but Russia’s recruitment efforts remain a clear-and-present danger.
Aside from these time-tested methods, Russia has
experimented with a diverse array of new espionage tactics. The first is
cyber-espionage. Russia has used
spear-phishing to access information about British citizens and organisations. The
FSB-linked Star Blizzard actor has targeted British politicians, NGOs and academics since 2019. It reels in unsuspecting targets with
customised email outreaches and
exports malware to carry out
data harvesting on British nationals.
FSB Centre 18, which oversees the Star Blizzard hacks, has
stepped up its political interference campaign in Britain and
leaked some secret political documents.
www.telegraph.co.uk
