FROM MOSCOW

UNTIL 1991, THE Soviet Union’s KGB kept detailed records of British Army personnel who served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, because they needed to know the disposition of British forces all the time in case of conflict with NATO. When the Cold War ended, it was believed that such spying was redundant. It wasn’t.

“It is said that the Russians had several agents in the UK Ministry of Defence, one after the other, over the decades, who kept them supplied with the information they required,” says spy author Dansey Fleming. “However, when the Soviet Union dissolved itself and the Cold War ended, the agent they had then didn’t follow suit; he just continued to send material to Moscow. Only now it wasn’t troop dispositions, it was more intimate information. The Kremlin wanted personal facts about individuals rather than dispositions of NATO troops. For the latter, they just had to watch the evening news – Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

“So their men in the MOD sent everything they could find about everyone they could trace. And in all that came terribly sensitive details of home addresses and phone numbers, bank accounts, everything, about literally hundreds of thousands of men and women. A treasure trove.

“Being patient chaps, Russian spooks kept it to themselves, until last year. The war in Ukraine forced a rethink. It was the British proposal to immunize their soldiers from prosecution for any crimes committed in Northern Ireland during the Troubles that caused some bright spark at the GRU (Russian Military Intelligence) to suggest that the names and addresses of those British soldiers alleged to have committed crimes in Northern Ireland be sent to dissident Irish Republicans – the New IRA. I don’t think they expect Britain to be overrun with Fenian hit squads chasing pensioners around our green and pleasant land, but the very fact that the IRA knows where these men are living is enough to cause concern in British military circles, not to mention quite a few former members of the Parachute Regiment and the Special Air Service. Many of these men will be quite decrepit and it could ensure the final years of their lives are distinctly uncomfortable and unpleasant. Of course, MI5 and MI6 will be desperately searching for the current Russian mole in the MOD, if he actually exists. That’s the Russian way, create fear and confusion and then take advantage of it.”