At the height of the Cold War, the Russian embassy in London was the base for Moscow’s shadow war against the UK.
From inside the thick-walled Kensington mansion, Kremlin spies orchestrated the betrayal of the “Cambridge Five” and the assassination of a dissident with a poison-tipped umbrella.
In more recent years, the murder of Alexander Litvinenko with polonium, and the Salisbury poisonings, have been tied back to Russian intelligence operating from within the London site.
Shorts
This week it emerged that Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin, had been recalled back to Moscow, and had yet to be replaced amid mounting diplomatic tensions.
