Former KGB officer warns Britain remains a prime target for Russian and Chinese spies

A former KGB officer argues that Russian espionage against Britain is inevitable, rooted in a long-standing doctrine that the success of spies depends more on the target country’s political and social climate than on the number of agents deployed. He recounts historic cases, from Soviet atomic-spies celebrated on postage stamps to the Cambridge Five recruited by Arnold Deutsch, illustrating how sympathetic environments produced major intelligence coups.

Applying that theory to today, he points to widespread British disenchantment with politics, scandals involving elites, economic hardship and the prevalence of Chinese-made goods as factors that foreign services can exploit. While the war in Ukraine has reduced pro-Russian sentiment, other nations, notably China, also find a favorable operational environment. He concludes that increasing funding for security agencies will not remedy the deep-seated vulnerabilities that make the UK a prime target for espionage.