Britain arrests US soldier over spying for Russia

A member of the US army suspected of spying for Russia was on Tuesday arrested in Britain, London police said, following an investigation with support from the US military and law enforcement.

The case is the latest espionage allegation involving suspected Russian agents in Britain, a close ally of Ukraine which Moscow invaded in 2022.

Police said in a statement the 41-year-old US soldier was detained near Gloucester on suspicion he had contravened national security laws and was in custody at a London police station.

A Metropolitan Police van is parked in London on March 21, 2023.

Photo: EPA-EFE

“This significant arrest, and investigation is a result of close collaboration between UK and US authorities,” said Vicki Evans, London Metropolitan Police’s senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing.

“The allegations are serious, and our investigation is very much ongoing,” she added.

FBI Director Kash Patel thanked British police and intelligence agencies.

“This important arrest involves allegations of espionage, which is of the utmost concern to the United States and our allies,” the London police statement quoted him as saying.

US Brigadier General Sean Stinchon, head of the US Army Counterintelligence Command, in the police statement described the alleged actions of the “senior solider, entrusted with sensitive information” as a “sobering reminder that insider threats are real and persistent.”

Relations between Russia and Britain were frosty long before the Ukraine war began — marred by several spy and assassination scandals, including the 2006 poisoning of ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London and the 2018 attempted poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.

In September, a British man appeared in court in London over allegations he was preparing to sabotage a drone factory and drone manufacturing sites on behalf of Russian military intelligence.