Is the UK being infiltrated by Putin’s spies? One former MI6 agent warns so

A former agent of the United Kingdom’s Secret Intelligence Service has warned of rogue operatives in the country that could terminate enemies at the behest of Russia. According to The Sun, erstwhile MI-6 agent Julian Richards said that Britain’s intelligence agencies 'don't know' the exact number of sleeper agents spying for Moscow in the UK. 

It is believed that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s key espionage tactic is to send spies into countries as regular civilians in order to gather valuable intel and erode the West out of its critical secrets. The threat of spies has the UK wrapped around its fingers, with multiple former CIA and MI6 agents warning civilians to stay vigilant due to the surge of infiltration by Putin’s spies.

"Either they’re very, very good at it, in which case there could be a lot of them out there that we just don’t know about," Richards told The Sun Online. "Theoretically they could assassinate someone, if they needed to. This is where the Skripal case is interesting and the Litvinenko case before it. It was the GRU - military intelligence - that was exposed as being involved,” he added. 

UK faces 'big problem' of Russian espionage

"We know that the UK has always been a particular target for the Russians. They know that we’re potentially a very useful connection into the American intelligence system,” he elucidated. According to Richards, these 'invisible' spies access crucial information by blending with society, taking up regular jobs, and gradually climbing their way up the social ladder.

"Either it’s a big problem and we don’t have an idea of the scale of it and how many are out there, but I think it’s more likely it’s not that big of a problem, and because they are so difficult to do, there probably aren’t many of them out there. But there are some, particularly in the UK,” he said. 

The former agent's recent warning comes after alleged spies Sergey Skvortsov and his partner Elena Koulkova, who posed as regular civilians for years, were taken under arrest in Sweden.