MI5 The Wrong Great Game

37EYE SPY INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE 77 2012

MI5Counter-intelligence officials at MI5 are bitterly disappointed that a specially convened panel of judges

(Special Immigration and Appeals Commission - SIAC) has allowed Katia Zatuliveter, a former Parliamentarysecretary and suspected SVR agent to stay in the UK. Three senior tribunal officials dismissed much of the

evidence presented by the Security Service, but not all...

Russian-born Zatuliveter, 26,had relationships withseveral prominent officials, including British politicianand defence select commit-tee member Mike Hancock,

65, a senior Dutch diplomat in his mid-thirties,a German military official within NATO aged56, and an official operating under the auspices of the United Nations.

These liaisons were sufficient to alert MI5, andthe tribunal acknowledge they provided

“amplegrounds for suspicion.” However,though theresearchermay havebeen “calculatingand ambi-tious,” shewas not aspy, accord-ing to the

three member panel, which included formerMI5 Director-General Sir Stephen Lander.

Senior MI5 counter-intelligence officialsbelieved Zatuliveter had been tasked with targeting important officials in government,military offices and business. This amidst asecret espionage war being fought againstSVR operatives in London. Two officers wereassigned to the Zatuliveter case, though they were but part of a wider investigation whichhas been engaged in identifying SVR contactsmainly in London: some of these amongst agrowing London-based Russian population ofover 30,000. And Eye Spy understands muchemphasis by the recently enlarged MI5counter-intelligence desk has focused on known SVR targets or “persons of interest.”Few agencies are more experienced in the“subtle methods of recruitment” than the SVR,which is known to have intensified its spyingoperations in Britain. All of this led MI5 tobelieve Zatuliveter was either an agent, or that she had been unwittingly targeted andselected by the SVR as a contact woman.Zatuliveter herself was probably oblivious tosuch attention, but an encounter with a

diplomat from the Russian Embassy promptedher to notify her employer - Mike Hancock.Perhaps an indication she was concerned. Either way, it is now known the man was inthe service of the SVR.

Few intelligence watchers do not believe itwas Zatuliveter’s previous relations that seemto have attracted the attention of the Russian agency, as well as a watching MI5.

All of these circumstances were examined bySIAC, plus Zatuliveter’s apparent naivety. So

THE WRONG GREAT GAME?

EVIDENCE AGAINST SUSPECTED RUSSIAN SPY REJECTED

Sir Stephen Lander

KATIA ZATULIVETER

An MI5 teamheld several

interviews withZatuliveter invarious hotels

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