London’s Russians fear compatriots are Kremlin spies

Moscow is believed to have quintupled its intelligence presence in the UK since 2010 as it runs a web of espionage that comfortably surpasses Cold War levels.

About 200 case officers and more than 500 agents currently operate in the UK as part of “subversive, political warfare”, according to the Henry Jackson Society report.

The Russian spies’ primary task is to gather intelligence on persons of interest, such as those who occupy, or previously held, influential positions of power related to Russia.

“Long after you’ve left Russia, you realise that Russia hasn’t left you,” an opposition figure told the society.

The report said it would be naive to assume “Russia has given up its Cold War mind set” and was not still engaged in “a broad and malevolent effort to undermine our society”.

Members of Russia’s expatriate community described a heightened sense of paranoia and vigilance against potential spies – evidenced by a belief that between a quarter and half of Russia’s London residents are informants.

“Britain and the West as a whole face an unrelenting assault from Putin’s bloated intelligence and security agencies,” said Sir Malcom Rifkind, a former chairman of the UK Intelligence and Security Committee.

The report comes at a time of heightened fears over Russian interference after the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March this year.

Prime Minister Theresa May immediately responded by expelling 23 “undeclared intelligence officers”.

But Sir Richard Dearlove, the former MI6 chief, said: “Russian intelligence activity in the West is still large scale and intrusive ... we need to devote significant resources and expertise ourselves to monitoring and blunting this threat to our national security.”

Since the 2000s, Britain has granted political asylum to several Russians, including former spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned in November 2006 with the radioactive isotope polonium-210.

Incidents such as these, and an increased fear of the Russian intelligence services, had provoked a widespread sense of paranoia among the exile community, the report by Dr Andrew Foxall said.

Vladimir Ashurkov, a former investment banker and critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, described fleeing Moscow for London in 2014 after his flat was raided.

Only six months after arriving in London, Mr Ashurkov realised he was being followed and said there was an assumption “all my emails are intercepted and read”.

“I had a meeting with a friend in a hotel, a Russian businessman who lives in London but frequently travels to Moscow. We met at a hotel for a coffee. We go way back, perhaps 15 years or so,” Mr Ashurkov said.

“When he next travelled to Moscow, the following week, he met some people from the security services.

“They knew about our meeting, where we met and what we discussed.”

Much of the intelligence work was incredibly basic and obvious. One tactic was to place agents at the press conferences of dissidents to ask uncomfortable questions or engage in public discussions to incriminate the target.

However, agents could also be much more intimidating.

One London resident spoke of being on school runs alongside men speaking Russian and eating foods from Russia.