Cold War habits die hard as agents go undercover

The Cold War may have finished 20 years ago, but the old spy games have never stopped.

Russian espionage agents in Britain remain "every bit as active" as they were in the days of the former Soviet Union, according to former MI5 chief Dame Stella Rimington.

As MI5 continues to probe the background of Anna Chapman – the alleged Russian spy who spent five years in Britain – Dame Stella suggested that Moscow still had a "very large and well-resourced intelligence community" directed against UK interests.

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"The successor organisations to the KGB are every bit as active as their predecessor," she told The Sunday Telegraph.

"Are the Russians up to the same sort of thing in Britain? You bet they are, if they think they can get away with it."

The Sunday Times meanwhile reported that intelligence analysts suspected that a network of 15 to 20 Russian "illegals" may be operating in Britain under deep cover in addition to 35 or so undeclared intelligence officers operating out of the Russian embassy under diplomatic cover.

While the arrest of the glamorous Mrs Chapman and her fellow alleged spies last week in United States may put such activities in the spotlight, the concerns are nothing new.

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The current Director General of MI5, Jonathan Evans, warned in a speech three years ago that there had been no decrease in the number of undeclared Russian intelligence officers in Britain since the Cold War.

While the agency was trying to counter the threat of al-Qaida, it was still having to divert resources as Russia, China and others devoted "considerable time and energy trying to steal our sensitive technology on civilian and military projects, and trying to obtain political and economic intelligence at our expense."

The use of so-called "illegals" has always been a potent weapon in the intelligence "toolbox". The aim is for agents to blend in seamlessly to the societies where they are operating, gradually gaining access to the intelligence secrets their political masters are seeking.

Among the most infamous was Konon Molody, a Russian spy who operated in Britain in the 1950s under the assumed identity of a Canadian businessman called Gordon Lonsdale.

He was eventually arrested in 1961 and put on trial at the Old Bailey for espionage. He was returned to Russia in 1964 in a classic Cold War spy swap.

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