Briton admits being Moscow’s mole at our embassy in Berlin
A SECURITY guard at Britain’s embassy in Berlin offered himself up to spy for Russia, passing over state secrets due to his intense hatred of the UK.
David Ballantyne Smith was a mole for Moscow before he was captured in a sting operation, it can be revealed today.
Following Smith’s arrest it emerged that he had spent 15 months spying before being caught by the intelligence services. He despised British values and was angered by the flying of the Rainbow LGBT+ flag at the embassy that employed him for eight years, prosecutors said.
The 58-year-old, originally from Paisley, Scotland, now faces up to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to eight counts under the Official Secrets Act.
He was arrested at his home in Potsdam on August 10 last year by German police who found emails and documents marked ‘secret’ ready to be passed to his Russian handlers, plus 800 euros in cash at his flat. He pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey on November 4 and reporting restrictions were lifted yesterday when the Crown decided against trying him on a ninth charge.
It can now be revealed that Smith was communicating with General Major Sergey Chukhurov, the military attaché at the Russian Embassy, Berlin.
He was said to have passed a letter containing sensitive information about British civil servants, including their addresses, phone numbers and photos of security passes, to the Russian general.
It had been posted from near Smith’s address and handwriting analysis concluded it was likely he had written on the envelope himself. He also collected material about the operation and layout of the embassy and was caught on video in the embassy’s security kiosk filming a person known as Dmitry on the CCTV system, according to the prosecution case.
He was recorded saying to himself: ‘This will do. I’ll get the rest tomorrow.’ The next day he sent information to his handler about building repairs to the embassy.
Also last August, Smith was contacted by someone he believed to be a member of Russian military intelligence, known as the GRU, passing them information about the embassy. He left work early on August 10 after saying he was unwell, and was picked up by German police as he arrived home.
The footage he had filmed was found on devices at his home, as
‘Trove of Soviet memorabilia’
well as a letter to former military attaché Colonel Sivov, in which Smith explained he could provide sensitive information that the colonel ‘might be able to make use of’.
Police also found videos of a walk around the embassy building, photos of organisational charts and notes about employees.
Reporters who visited Smith’s home when he was first arrested found an astonishing trove of Soviet memorabilia that exposed where his true loyalties might lay and presented serious vetting questions for the Foreign Office.
For example, the battered 17-yearold silver Ford Fiesta parked outside his flat bore the number plate RU1801: the first two letters of ‘Russia’ followed by the year that Alexander I became Tsar.
Inside the living room of his 800euro-a-month ground-floor flat was a huge Russian flag, an old badge with a Russian navy crest on the wall, a life-size rottweiler toy wearing a Russian hat, a bookshelf with titles written in Russian Cyrillic script and a Soviet military cap. Propping up various Russian language philosophy books was a white model of a Trabant, the state-produced Soviet-era car.
And the former RAF junior airman’s social media was littered with photos of himself wearing pro-Russian clothes alongside anti-Nato and anti-western messages.
In one incredible image, Smith poses next to a Russian tank wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the Russian flag. Smith was extradited back to Britain in April. He now faces further hearings and sentencing in February.
Matthew Ryder KC, defending, said there was a ‘large difference between the Crown and Mr Smith about motivation, intention and why he did what he did’. He argued Smith did not have negative intentions towards Britain and it is understood he claims he was motivated by a row with embassy colleagues.