A former security guard at the British embassy in Berlin faces up to 14 years in jail after admitting to charges of spying for Russia.
David Ballantyne Smith, 58, a British citizen of no fixed address, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey in London to eight charges under the Official Secrets Act. The offences took place between October 2020 and August 2021.
Smith was arrested by German police on August 10 last year and was extradited to Britain in April.
The charges included one of attempting to communicate with general major Sergey Chukhurov, the Russian military attaché based at the Russian embassy in Berlin, with details of the identities, addresses and telephone numbers of a number of civil servants.
He also admitted to two charges of making video recordings of the CCTV system at the embassy, which allowed him to collect information of the layout of the building and its operation.
He also admitted to communicating information about the embassy building to the Russian state and making an unauthorised photocopy of documents on August 5 2021.
Smith entered the pleas last week but reporting restrictions were only lifted on Friday when prosecutors said they would not seek a trial of a ninth charge, which he denied.
He is due to be sentenced at a later date for the charges, which carry a maximum of 14 years in prison.
The case comes as western governments step up their guard against the threat posed by Russian intelligence services as they continue to support Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Last month, the authorities in Norway arrested a man who they said was posing as a Brazilian university researcher but was in fact a Russian spy, a so-called “sleeper agent” who had spent years building up a deep-cover identity.
In 2010, US authorities arrested 10 Russian agents for attempting to steal US government secrets, including Anna Chapman, who subsequently become a minor celebrity in the west as well as in Moscow. More than 300 Russians have been ejected from EU member states since the invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.