Tens of thousands of Russian spies in UK: report

Out of an estimated population of 150,000 Russian expats living in London, "up to half are said to be" informants of the Kremlin’s intelligence and security agencies, according to the study by the Henry Jackson Society, a British foreign policy think tank.

It named the agencies as the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU), and the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

The study, entitled "Putin Sees and Hears It All: How Russia’s Intelligence Agencies Menace the UK," also claims that half of Russian embassy diplomats in London are actively engaged in intelligence work.

“The West needs to wake up to the threat posed by Vladimir Putin and his corrupt and brutal dictatorship,” Ian Austin, a British Labour Party MP, said, as cited by the Henry Jackson Society on its website. “For too long, too many people have been blind to the scale of the Kremlin’s insidious campaign of espionage on our streets.”

Russia’s intelligence and security services are “as much as 52 times the size of their British equivalents,” according to the study, which was authored by Dr. Andrew Foxall.

The report urges the UK government to “redouble its efforts in combatting the threat posed by Russia.”

(gs/pk)

Source: niezalezna.pl, henryjacksonsociety.org