200 Putin spies in UK
We are ‘ill-equipped’ to tackle Kremlin threat, report warns
AGENTS Vladimir Putin RUSSIA is feared to have 200 spies in Britain – five times as many as during the Cold War.
A report claims London is “illequipped” to cope with being a “front line” of President Vladimir Putin’s push against the West.
The shock estimate on the Kremlin presence by think-tank the Henry Jackson Society comes eight years after MI5 said the number was “at the same level as in Soviet times” – which MI6 double agent Oleg Gordievsky has said was 39. The new figure of 200 is based on interviews with serving and former officials.
And the report urges Britain to follow Estonia’s lead. The Baltic Gorbachev, left, and Reagan sign treaty BRITAIN is standing “absolutely resolute” with the US after President Donald Trump said he would pull out of a nuclear weapons pact with Russia.
The US accused Russia last year of breaching the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty by deploying cruise missiles.
Mr Trump did not outline recent pact violations but warned the US would restart its weapons programme unless Russia and China, not a INF signatory, stop developing warheads.
He said: “We’re not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons and we’re not allowed to. We’ll have to develop those
DANGER Trump warns of quitting anti-nuke pact state, which lives under constant threat of Russian invasion, makes an annual report identifying people and groups suspected of links with Kremlin intelligence.
Concern over Russia’s espionage deepened after the failed novichok hit on former GRU spy Sergei Skripal, 67, and daughter Yulia, 34, in Salisbury in March. weapons.” Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said: “We will be absolutely resolute with the United States in hammering home a clear message that Russia needs to respect the treaty.”
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament feared the posturing will trigger a Cold War-style arms race.
And ex-Russian President Mikael Gorbachev, who signed the 1987 treaty with then US President Ronald Reagan, said: “Quitting the INF is a mistake.”
A Kremlin spokesman said Russian President Vladimir Putin would seek answers about the planned withdrawal when he meets Mr Trump’s national security adviser in Moscow this week.