CLOSE PUTIN’S NEST OF SPIES
Capital building a security risk, says expert
A leading security expert has cal led for the Russian Consulate in Scotland to be closed down and officials ordered to leave the country.
Professor Anthony Glees has warned the three-storey building may be housing spies who could pose a security risk.
The Consulate on Edinburgh’s Melville Street – a short distance from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s off icial residence Bute House – has remained open during the conflict in the Ukraine despite Britain cutting off all other links with Russia.
Glees is professor of politics at the University of Buckingham and a former director of its inf luential Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies.
He told the Sunday Mail: “There is no doubt these embassies and consulates are centres of espionage and propaganda.
“I would bet that there are intelligence officers in Edinburgh and they will be active. I say close it and send their staff packing because of what Russia is doing to the people of Ukraine.
“Scotland is the strategic core of our nuclear defence capability and Edinburgh is close to our most militarily sensitive area which is Faslane on the Clyde.
“Anything which would be of use to Russia such as submarine movements is vital and you only get that information by being there.
“I am sure Bute House will also be very carefully searched and swept for electronic devices.”
In the past, the city-centre consulate has been used mainly for people seeking visas to Russia. Professor Glees added: “It’s outrageous that we have any official Russian representation in the UK at all. They serve no useful purpose and only make propaganda for Russia. “Scotland is vulnerable at the moment because of the disagreements between the Scottish and UK governments. “Putin wants an ongoing fight and struggle between Scotland and
England. Where there is vulnerability, there is opportunity for our enemies. “That is why I can’t understand why they are still operating in Edinburgh and elsewhere.”
In March, we told how
Rus s ia n f ina ncier Yur iy Lopatynskyy had links to a firm which owned 21 Georgian townhouses in and around Edinburgh’s New Town.
Professor Glees added:
“We are squeezing Russia e conomic a l l y wi th ou r sanctions, so what is the purpose of the consulate as we are not doing any business with them? When Ukraine is l iberated f rom Russi an brutality and aggression, that is the time we can think of inviting them back in. “As long as the union exists, Scotland is entitled to the very best care from our security devices. Let’s hope it is getting it.” The professor was backed in his call to axe the Russian Consulate by Scottish terrorism expert Graham Yuill, who recently published a best seller on the Salisbury novichok poisonings.
He said: “The UK Government should expel a l l consular officials from Scottish soil, many of whom are spies, masquerading as bona fide personnel.”
I n Apr i l , t he Ru s s i a n ambassador to the UK was told by Edinburgh City Council that their consulate was no longer welcome in the capital.
The council said it would sever all engagement with the Russian consulate until Russia withdraws from Ukraine. Anti- war campaigners have also launched a petition to change Melville Street to Zelensky Street in honour of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.