KGB Penetrated Britain's Buckingham Palace
September 20, 1999 - 0:0
LONDON -- The Soviet spy agency KGB had two agents inside Buckingham Palace in the 1960s and 1970s to keep an eye on Queen Elizabeth, and even considered recruiting one of the monarch's cousins, the Sunday Mirror newspaper reported. According to AFP, although the agents' presence was uncovered six years ago after the defection of KGB archivist Vasily Mitrokhin to Britain, they were never identified and have left their jobs at the palace, the newspaper said.
"It is a fact that the KGB recruited two employees at Buckingham Palace from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies," the newspaper quoted a source within the domestic intelligence service MI5 as saying. "The employees were of great value to the KGB," he said. The royal residence was not available early Sunday to comment on the report. The Soviet spies reportedly installed a listening device which allowed the KGB to hear the Queen's conversations with visiting dignitaries.
According to the report, the spy agency also thought of trying to enlist Prince Michael of Kent, a cousin of the monarch who speaks fluent Russian and who began working at the British Defense Ministry in 1968. The prince was employed by Britain's military intelligence service from 1974 to 1981, but the report said that the KGB's approaches "were indirect." "No one knows they are a target.
The prince himself was not aware," the MI5 source said. The Sunday Mirror story is one a series of spy revelations to accompany publication of the Mitrokhin archives, which were compiled into a book by a Cambridge University academic. But the newspaper said the case of the palace moles is not included in that work, because files relating to the royal family and other sensitive subjects will remain secret for several more years.
The escalating spy scandal has caused a storm of protest over how much British ministers knew about the one-time agents and why they were never prosecuted for their treachery. British Home Secretary Jack Straw has now ordered MI5 to report annually to the government on spying cases under investigation and has asked a parliamentary committee to probe the way the Mitrokhin archives were handled.
"It is a fact that the KGB recruited two employees at Buckingham Palace from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies," the newspaper quoted a source within the domestic intelligence service MI5 as saying. "The employees were of great value to the KGB," he said. The royal residence was not available early Sunday to comment on the report. The Soviet spies reportedly installed a listening device which allowed the KGB to hear the Queen's conversations with visiting dignitaries.
According to the report, the spy agency also thought of trying to enlist Prince Michael of Kent, a cousin of the monarch who speaks fluent Russian and who began working at the British Defense Ministry in 1968. The prince was employed by Britain's military intelligence service from 1974 to 1981, but the report said that the KGB's approaches "were indirect." "No one knows they are a target.
The prince himself was not aware," the MI5 source said. The Sunday Mirror story is one a series of spy revelations to accompany publication of the Mitrokhin archives, which were compiled into a book by a Cambridge University academic. But the newspaper said the case of the palace moles is not included in that work, because files relating to the royal family and other sensitive subjects will remain secret for several more years.
The escalating spy scandal has caused a storm of protest over how much British ministers knew about the one-time agents and why they were never prosecuted for their treachery. British Home Secretary Jack Straw has now ordered MI5 to report annually to the government on spying cases under investigation and has asked a parliamentary committee to probe the way the Mitrokhin archives were handled.