KREMLIN BLAMES BRITAIN FOR TRUMP SEX STORM
Ex-MI6 man behind dossier fears for life
RUSSIA’S relations with Britain went into the deep freeze last night as Moscow blamed MI6 for the dossier of sordid claims about Donald Trump.
In an alarming Twitter post, the Russian embassy in London suggested the dossier’s alleged author, former British spy Christopher Steele, was still working for MI6 and ‘briefing both ways’ against Mr Trump and Moscow.
It came as American sources claimed that the UK Government gave the FBI permission to contact Mr Steele, who is in hiding after vanishing shortly before the damning dossier made headlines around the world. There were claims last night that he was in an MI6 safe house.
A Russian embassy spokesman said the tweet, which claimed ‘MI6 officers are never ex’, ‘reflected the mood in
Russia’. A Tory MP said last night the fresh outbreak of Cold War hostilities comes at a time when relations between Britain and Russia were the ‘worst they could get in peace-time’.
Just days ago the Russians claimed they knew of ‘an impending official anti-Russian witch- hunt, involving the British special services’. In a series of major developments yesterday, it emerged:
Sources told the Daily Telegraph that Mr Steele spoke to government officials before handing the dossier to the FBI;
Until 2009, Mr Steele worked as one of MI6’s foremost ‘Kremlinologists’ heading the spy agency’s Russia desk;
He was the first person to conclude Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko had been murdered in a Kremlin-sponsored ‘hit’, and Litvinenko’s widow said Mr Steele’s life was in danger;
Mr Steele and his late wife suffered ‘constant harassment’ by the KGB during his posting to Moscow in the early 1990s, including an incident when Russian agents stole his wife’s favourite shoes;
Orbis, a company co-owned by Mr Steele, made £1million in profit in the past two years;
A former senior British diplomat, Sir Andrew Wood, last night confirmed he met a Republican senator to discuss claims Mr Trump had been filmed in a compromising position.
Mr Steele, 52, fled his £1.5 million home in Surrey on Wednesday amid concerns there could be a dangerous backlash against him from Moscow. American newspapers named him as the author of the 35-page report, thought to have been commissioned by a wealthy Republican donor who opposed Mr Trump’s bid for the White House.
The explosive dossier alleged Mr Trump had been cosying up to Vladimir Putin and cavorting with Russian prostitutes. The president- elect has dismissed it as ‘false and fictitious’. And as details of Mr Steele’s extraordinary career emerged, Marina Litvinenko told the BBC: ‘I believe it is very dangerous, particularly after the death of my husband, because when you just approach very specific information... you just easily might be killed.’
Posted over a picture showing three question marks, the Russian embassy tweet read: ‘Christopher Steele story: MI6 officers are never ex: briefing both ways – against Russia and US President.’ A spokesman for the embassy said: ‘We have obvious questions. We don’t raise them with HM Government given the frozen state of our official relationship.
‘The tweet reflects the mood in Russia and speaks for itself.’
Tory MP Crispin Blunt, who is conducting an inquiry into Russia, said the tweet was a sign UK-Russian relations were the ‘worst they could get in peace-time’. Mr Blunt, an ex-Army