Spy Passion in the British Parliament

This week, the situation around Ekaterina (Kati) Zatuliveter (Katia Zatuliveter), detained by British authorities on suspicion of espionage, has been further developed. It is necessary to remind that the beginning stories It was laid 2 December, when a Russian citizen was arrested by counterintelligence of Great Britain, she was charged with working in the interests of the NER of Russia.

MI-5 reported that Zatouliveter, who has been working as an assistant to Mike Hancock, a member of the British Liberal Democratic Party for three years, used his duties to control his personal computer, which was located in the parliamentarian’s office, was sending e-mail. At the same time she was aware of the issues that concern the location of the bases of the British Navy, nuclear arsenals and submarines. It has been established that it was allowed to issue requests concerning the modernization of Trident nuclear warheads. Decorated materials Zatuliveter passed on to his boss, and he sent them to the leadership of the parliament.

According to the British counterintelligence, the girl could have transferred the information to the SVR agents, but no definite evidence of her guilt was ever brought. MI-5 gave her the definition of "sleeping agent", i.e. such a source that does not directly engage in hostile activity, but on occasion is ready to become more active and begin vigorous activity in the interests of the Russian special services. An additional factor casting doubt on the truth of the accusations may be the absence of an identified curator from Russian intelligence. If Zatuliveter had been in contact with one of our intelligence officers, this fact would certainly have been made public. We would observe another round of expulsion of diplomats from both sides. This did not happen, the assistant parliamentarian announced that her presence would be unfavorable for the security of the United Kingdom and only. In fact, the Russian woman was detained for violating immigration laws.

The scandal continued to develop. And now the Russian Foreign Ministry has entered it, which 6 of December sent a request for the provision of consular assistance to a citizen of the Russian Federation. For reasons that were not widely covered, the British authorities refused this request. This circumstance led to the direction of protest notes to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Great Britain.

14 December news information circled that the Zatuliveter was released on bail. She needs to be in her apartment before the trial, which will take place in early February next year. Mike Hancock’s assistant was banned from attending parliament and from talking to her former leader. Meanwhile, it is not reliably known exactly what information formed the basis of her accusation. The British intelligence services could not prove espionage in the actions of the Russians, they did not reveal the subtle game of the Russian intelligence either, so they decided to protect themselves from possible threats and send the identified "sleeping agent" to their homeland.

The media are trying to understand the reasons for the new scandal, to trace the possible trace of the previous failures of Russian agents. Some authoritative print publications, in particular The Washington Times, link the search for embedded spies with exposing confessions of the defector of the SVR of Russia, Alexander Poteev. A broad FBI operation to identify deployed employees at the NSA in the US somehow echoes the situation around Katya Zatouliveter. Two scandals with Russian spies happened at the same time, and in both cases we are talking about possible illegal work in the authorities of a foreign state or its special services.

The Guardian newspaper is of the opinion that the actions of the girl with the passport of Russia simply did not like the specialists from the British counterintelligence. Still, a member of the British Parliament, directly related to the Defense Committee of the House of Commons, trusts to check e-mails and prepare memoranda of an 25-year-old girl who has a wide circle of acquaintances in distant Moscow. Finding no convincing evidence against Zatuliveter, MI-5 simply decided to protect itself by rejecting an undesirable element from access to state secrets. And what could be more effective than expulsion from the state?

But, the most extraordinary should recognize the version of the Russian Foreign Ministry. Some diplomatic officials seriously believe that the spy scandal was initiated by London in retaliation for the failure of the UK to host the FIFA World Cup, which was reported to take place in 2018 in Russia.

Meanwhile, the accused Katya Zatuliveter and her lawyers are preparing lawsuits in court to challenge the decision on their deportation outside the UK. How events will develop, we will see in the near future.