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Ex-U.K. soldier held for “spying” for Russia

LONDON: A former British soldier is reported to have been arrested for allegedly spying for Russia raising fears of further escalation of diplomatic tensions between the two countries.

The arrest of Peter Hill, a former Territorial Army trooper, under the Official Secrets Act for allegedly trying to “sell” classified military documents to Russia, came amid a continuing row between London and Moscow over the Litvinenko affair.

Russia has refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB agent-turned-businessman, to stand trial for the alleged murder of Alexander Litvinenko, also a former KGB agent, who died in a London hospital last November after mysteriously ingesting the radio-active material polonium 210.

In July, Britain expelled four Russian diplomats to protest Moscow’s decision not to extradite Mr. Lugovoi. The Russian government, which says the country’s constitution does not allow it to extradite its citizens, retaliated by expelling four British diplomats.

Both countries have been engaged in a war of words over allegations and counter-allegations of spying.

The Sunday Telegraph, which reported Hill’s arrest, claimed that according to MI5 there were “30 intelligence officers working ‘under cover’ in the Russian embassy [in London] who are trying to steal Britain’s military and political secrets.”

It said a document circulated to British military bases warned that the level of Russian intelligence operation was “as extensive now as at any time during the Cold War.”

Hill (23), who has been since been released on bail, was arrested in Leeds last Wednesday after a “sting” operation in which a police officer met him posing as a Russian agent.

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