There are as many Russian spies now operating in Britain as at the Cold War’s peak, according a leading authority on Kremlin espionage.
Moscow-based writer Andrei Soldatov, an expert on on Vladimir Putin’s security apparatus, told the Times of London that there were at least 30 Russian spies on British soil.
Some work through formal diplomatic jobs, others are planted by Moscow with fake IDs, and some live completely in the open as businessmen, according to Soldatov.
In addition to keeping an eye on British military installations, the spies also keep track of Russian ex-pats who might be trashing Putin to their new countrymen.
“The FSB is mostly concerned with gathering information about people who might present some kind of threat to the authorities in Russia, such as Russian dissidents living in the UK,” Soldatov said.
Russian spying is a hot topic of discussion in the UK after retired High Court Judge Sir Robert Owen released a 329-page report last week, concluding that Putin “probably” ordered the murder of a former Kremlin agent Alexander Litvinenko.
The ex-Rusian spy was poisoned to death in London in 2006, after sipping a cup of green tea spiked with a radioactive isotope, polonium-210.