Category Archives: Espionage

Allegations of Indian interference rock Canada election campaign

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Senior officials warn nations including China, Pakistan and Iran could attempt to subvert vote with sophisticated tools

The spectre of interference by India has already rocked the early days of Canada’s federal election, with officials warning that sophisticated efforts from other hostile nations are expected in the coming weeks.

As Canadians prepare to cast ballots on 28 April, senior officials say that India, China, Pakistan and Iran are all expected to make efforts to subvert the national vote through increasingly sophisticated disinformation campaigns.

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‘A clever agent’: notes from ‘watchers’ of spy Kim Philby made public for first time

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A new exhibition at the National Archives in London will reveal the extent of MI5 operation to expose the British double agent who was also Observer reporter

Secret surveillance of Britain’s ­notorious double agent, Kim Philby, made public for the first time in archived documents, reveals how keenly the Security Service wanted to confirm or disprove early suspicions of his high-level treachery.

In daily bulletins submitted to MI5 in November 1951, undercover operatives describe how Philby, codenamed Peach, moved about London.

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Revealed: second Kremlin spy ring targeting Russian dissidents discovered in UK

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After the spying convictions of six Bulgarians, police have warned of further Russian operations against opponents

A second Kremlin spy operation has been discovered targeting Russian dissidents in Britain, it can be revealed.

Roman Dobrokhotov, a journalist in the sights of the six Bulgarians convicted of spying for Russia, said he had been informed of fresh attempts to surveil his family.

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Three UK-based Bulgarians found guilty of spying for Russia

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Jury convicts Katrin Ivanova, Vanya Gaberova and Tihomir Ivanchev over alleged plots around Europe

Three Bulgarian nationals accused of spying for Russia have been found guilty of espionage charges in a trial that heard how they were involved in a string of plots around Europe directed by a fugitive based in Moscow.

After more than 32 hours of deliberations, a jury at the Old Bailey reached unanimous verdicts on Katrin Ivanova, 33, a lab technician, Vanya Gaberova, 30, a beautician, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, a painter and decorator, all of whom were living in London before their arrest.

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Woman accused of stealing Ukrainian soldiers’ mobile numbers, court hears

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Prosecutor at Old Bailey says Katrin Ivanova was only member of Bulgarian spy ring able to pull off plot

A lab technician has been accused of being the only member of a Bulgarian spy ring able to pull off a plot to steal the mobile numbers of Ukrainian soldiers training in Germany.

Katrin Ivanova, 33, was told by prosecutor Alison Morgan KC at the Old Bailey that she had been described by the plotters’ leader as the most technically adept member of the group and that she was necessary to the planned surveillance in Stuttgart.

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Actor Dirk Bogarde was ‘disturbed’ by KGB sting warning, declassified files reveal

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MI5 told Bogarde in 1971 that he had been identified as ‘practising homosexual’ of interest by Russian spies

The film star Dirk Bogarde was “clearly disturbed” and “troubled” after MI5 warned him that his name had been given to the KGB as a “practising homosexual” and he risked being compromised in a sting operation, newly declassified intelligence files show.

Bogarde, who died in 1999 and never came out publicly but lived with his life partner and manager, Anthony Forwood, was told by security services that his name was on a list of “six practising British homosexuals” given to the Russians by an unnamed source who had himself been sexually compromised during a visit to Moscow in the late 1950s.

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MI5 files suggest queen was not briefed on spy in royal household for nine years

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Documents indicate monarch was informed Anthony Blunt was Soviet agent in 1973, though he confessed in 1964

The late Queen Elizabeth II was not told for almost 10 years that Anthony Blunt, a surveyor of the queen’s pictures and a member of the royal household, had confessed to being a Soviet double agent, previously secret security files suggest.

Declassified MI5 documents throw intriguing new light on how the security services closely guarded news that the art historian, of the notorious Cambridge Five spy ring, had confessed in April 1964, with records indicating the queen was only informed in 1973.

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Up to 100 ‘suspicious incidents’ in Europe can be attributed to Russia, Czech minister says

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Czech foreign minister says Europe ‘needs to send a strong signal to Moscow that this won’t be tolerated’

A senior European diplomat said that up to 100 “suspicious incidents” in Europe this year could be attributed to Russia, as western officials grapple with how to respond to suspected Russian sabotage attempts.

Speaking ahead of a meeting with Nato counterparts in Brussels, the Czech foreign minister, Jan Lipavský, stressed that Europe “needs to send a strong signal to Moscow that this won’t be tolerated”.

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China sentences journalist to seven years on spy charges, family says

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Dong Yuyu was detained in 2022 after meeting Japanese diplomats named agents of ‘espionage organisation’

A veteran Chinese state media journalist has been sentenced by a Beijing court to seven years in prison on espionage charges, his family has said.

Dong Yuyu, a senior columnist at the Communist party newspaper Guangming Daily, was detained in February 2022 along with a Japanese diplomat at a Beijing restaurant.

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China releases three US citizens held for years in prisoner swap

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Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung freed after Biden administration forges rare agreement with Beijing

Three American citizens imprisoned for years by China have been released in a prisoner swap, the White House has said, announcing a rare diplomatic agreement with Beijing in the final months of the Biden administration.

The three are Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung, all of whom had been designated by the US government as wrongfully detained. Swidan had been facing a death sentence on drug charges while Li and Leung were imprisoned on espionage charges.

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UK cabinet ministers barred from visiting Russia amid missile row

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Moscow bans Labour figures including Angela Rayner, Yvette Cooper and Rachel Reeves under new sanctions

Russia has banned cabinet ministers including Angela Rayner, Yvette Cooper and Rachel Reeves from entering the country under new sanctions announced by Moscow’s foreign affairs ministry.

More than a dozen other senior Labour politicians are among the 30 British citizens on the Russian “stop list” after tensions between London and Moscow rose following Ukraine’s recent use of British missiles to strike deeper into Russia.

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Russia expels UK diplomat over spying allegations

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Security service accuses diplomat of ‘reconnaisance and subversive activities’ amid rising tension

Russia said it was expelling a British diplomat for alleged spying as tensions between London and Moscow rose after Ukraine’s recent use of British weapons to strike deeper into Russia.

The FSB, Russia’s domestic intelligence agency, announced on Tuesday that it had acted on documents accusing a British diplomat of engaging in “reconnaissance and subversive activities that threaten the country’s security”.

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Russian spy ship escorted away from area with critical cables in Irish Sea

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Yantar intelligence ship was seen operating drones in an area containing subsea energy and internet infrastructure

A Russian spy ship has been escorted out of the Irish Sea after it entered Irish-controlled waters and patrolled an area containing critical energy and internet submarine pipelines and cables.

It was spotted on Thursday east of Dublin and south-west of the Isle of Man but Norwegian, US, French and British navy and air defence services initially observed it accompanying a Russian warship, the Admiral Golovko, through the English channel last weekend.

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NSO – not government clients – operates its spyware, legal documents reveal

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Details of emerge in sworn depositions by employees of Israeli company as part of lawsuit brought by WhatsApp

Legal documents released in ongoing US litigation between NSO Group and WhatsApp have revealed for the first time that the Israeli cyberweapons maker – and not its government customers – is the party that “installs and extracts” information from mobile phones targeted by the company’s hacking software.

The new details were contained in sworn depositions from NSO Group employees, portions of which were published for the first time on Thursday.

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Russia sends ex-US consulate employee to prison for ‘secret collaboration with foreign state’

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Robert Shonov worked for 25 years for consulate and was arrested on suspicion of passing secret information about war in Ukraine to US

A Russian former employee of the US consulate in Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok has been sentenced to four years and ten months in prison for “secret collaboration with a foreign state”.

Robert Shonov worked for more than 25 years for the US consulate until 2021, when Moscow imposed restrictions on local staff working for foreign missions.

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Network of Israeli citizens arrested after spying for Iran, police say

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Suspects are accused of photographing and collecting information about Israeli bases and facilities

Israeli police and the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency say they have arrested a network of Israeli citizens spying for Iran who allegedly provided information on military bases and conducted surveillance of individuals.

The investigators claimed the network had been active for about two years. According to reports in the Israeli press, the suspects are accused of photographing and collecting information about Israeli bases and facilities, including the defence headquarters in Tel Aviv, known as the Kirya, and the Nevatim and Ramat David airbases.

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US charges former Indian spy allegedly linked to foiled murder plot

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Justice department says Vikash Yadav, who remains at large, planned to murder a Sikh separatist in New York

The United States has charged a former Indian intelligence officer who allegedly directed a foiled plot to murder a Sikh separatist in New York City last year.

An indictment of Vikash Yadav was ordered to be unsealed on Thursday, court records showed. Yadav was a former officer in India’s Research and Analysis Wing spy service, the records said. He remains at large.

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West’s spy chiefs alarmed at recklessness of Russian counterparts

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After expulsion of hundreds of embassy-based spies, Kremlin is using riskier and less conventional methods

A developing Russian campaign of arson, sabotage and even murder plots has left western intelligence agencies alarmed over the past year.

The ramping up of activity has come as the Kremlin’s spy apparatus recovered from the initial shock of seeing 450 agents posing as diplomats expelled from Europe in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

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Ireland is a ‘playground’ for Russian intelligence, says former army chief

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Comment follows claim Kremlin recruited member of parliament to damage UK-Irish relations during Brexit talks

Ireland is a “playground” for Russian intelligence, a former deputy chief of an Irish army unit has said following claims that a member of parliament was recruited by the Kremlin to undermine Anglo-Irish relations during Brexit talks.

Cathal Berry, now a Teachta Dála (TD, member of the Irish parliament), said he had not been surprised by a report at the weekend that the unnamed politician had been recruited “as an agent of influence” in a honeytrap operation.

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Malcolm Turnbull condemns UK’s ‘extraordinary’ hypocrisy over Spycatcher affair

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Exclusive: Former Australian PM witnessed ‘shocking act of perjury’ and says MI5 are still trying to hide something

The former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has accused the UK government of hypocrisy and concealment over the way it continues to block the release of secret files about the Spycatcher affair.

Before entering politics, Turnbull was a barrister for Peter Wright, a retired senior MI5 intelligence officer who revealed a series of illegal activities by the British security services in his memoir Spycatcher.

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