Inside the shocking history of Russian espionage – including all the amazing events and accusations from Profumo to poisoned umbrellas and radioactive teapots
THE Donald Trump ‘dirty dossier’ is the latest in a long line of spy scandals which have rocked Britain.
This week, it was revealed that former MI6 agent Christopher Steele allegedly penned the discredited document which contained lurid claims about the President-elect’s ties to Russia.
But what are the other biggest spook scandals?
What was the Profumo affair?
In 1963, it was revealed that John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War in the Conservative government, was having an affair with a young model and showgirl Christine Keeler.
But in a salacious twist, Keeler was also revealed to be having a sexual relationship with Russian intelligence officer Yevgeni Ivanov.
Profumo’s compromising relationship with Keeler was uncovered when a dispute between two of her other lovers resulted in several shots being fired at an apartment where the model was living.
The gunman’s arrest led to the press investigating the glamorous 19-year-old and reporting the illicit affair which helped bring down then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.
How was journalist Georgi Markov murdered?
In 1978, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was killed when he was stabbed in the leg with an umbrella tip laced with deadly poison ‘ricin’.
The murder, which took place as the journalist crossed London’s Waterloo Bridge, was allegedly carried out by the Bulgarian secret service with the help of the Russian KGB.
Markov, who was an outspoken critic of the Soviet Union, died three days later after developing a high fever hours after the incident.
The journalist had been working at the BBC’s World Service building at the time of the killing.
No one has ever been investigated over the death.
How was Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko killed?
In 2006 former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko, an arch critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, was poisoned with radioactive polonium which was placed in his tea.
The sinister attack was carried out at a Mayfair hotel in London.
It has since been revealed that former spy Steele met Litvinenko ‘several’ times in London before the Russian was killed.
A public inquiry in 2015 concluded that the former spy was murdered by Russian intelligence which was most likely approved by Vladimir Putin.
Who were the Cambridge Five?
The Cambridge Spy Ring was a group of double agents who supplied the Soviet government with classified information up until the early 1950s.
Recruited during their time at Cambridge University in the 1930s, four of the members; Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, and Anthony Blunt were all exposed as Russian spies.
All of the original four – bar Blunt – defected to Moscow where they lived for the remainder of their lives.
Originally known as the Cambridge Four, the name was changed after numerous others were implicated but never proven to be part of the spy ring.
Who was MI6 double agent George Blake?
Former Royal Navy officer and MI6 agent George Blake was captured by the North Korean army while fighting in the Korean War in 1950.
After watching the bombing of small villages and being influenced by the work of communist godfather Karl Marx, Blake volunteered to become a KGB spy.
Following the end of the war, he was stationed in Berlin by MI6 where he covertly briefed his Soviet colleagues about the workings of British and American spies.
Blake was arrested in 1961 while in London and offered a full confession to British Intelligence.
But he escaped from prison in 1966, with the help of three other men, and managed to escape to East Germany and then to Moscow.
He still lives in the Russian capital and enjoys a KGB pension.
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