Three men have been arrested in London on suspicion of assisting Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the Metropolitan Police confirmed on Thursday.
The suspects — aged 48, 45 and 44 — were detained at separate addresses in west and central London during coordinated raids by counterterrorism officers. Searches are continuing at those locations and at a third property in west London.
Police said the alleged offences are linked to activities “on behalf of the Russian state.”
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of Counter Terrorism Policing in London, warned that authorities are seeing a growing number of individuals being recruited as “proxies” by foreign intelligence services.
“These arrests are directly related to our ongoing efforts to disrupt this type of activity,” Murphy said. “Anyone tempted to engage in criminal activity for a foreign state should think again. We will investigate, prosecute, and there are serious consequences for those found guilty.”
The arrests come amid heightened scrutiny of foreign influence operations in the U.K. In July, the government placed Moscow under the enhanced tier of its new Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, requiring anyone acting on behalf of the Russian state to declare their activities or face prosecution.
Earlier this year, three men were convicted in connection with an arson attack on a warehouse storing aid for Ukraine — an incident investigators said was part of a broader pattern of Russian-linked interference. Photo by Krokodyl, Wikimedia commons.
