Liberal Democrat MP's assistant questioned by MI5 over spy links Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1307214/Liberal-Democrat-MP-Mike-Hancocks-assistant-questioned-

A Russian researcher who works for a Liberal Democrat MP has been investigated by MI5 amid fears she has links to spies.
Katia Zatuliveter, 25, a Parliamentary assistant to Left-winger Mike Hancock, was questioned by officials from the security service.
They grilled her about her alleged links to Russian intelligence and her love life, indicating that she had been under surveillance, a friend claimed yesterday.

Katia Zatuliveter has been working as an assistant for Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock

Anna Chapman was one of ten spies caught by US authorities in June

Mr Hancock, a backbencher, is a member of the influential Commons' defence select committee and has naval interests in his Portsmouth south constituency.
Security sources say MI5 is investigating whether 'sleeper cells' are active in Britain after a Russian spy ring was unmasked in the U.S. in June.
One of the ten caught was Anna Chapman, 28, who lived and worked in the UK between 2001 and 2006 and gained a British passport - since revoked - after marrying a man she met in London.
Miss Zatuliveter has vehemently denied being involved in espionage. She has admitted that she was stopped and questioned at Gatwick airport but claimed her friend's account of the questioning was 'massively exaggerated'.
MI5 quizzed her three weeks ago as she arrived at Gatwick from Croatia, where she had been celebrating her birthday. One of her friends claimed she had also been 'interrogated'.
'They knew we were coming back from split,' the friend told a Sunday newspaper. 'They had our names so they probably were listening to our phones.'
The unnamed friend was asked about Miss Zatuliveter's work for the MP, her family in Russia and if she had ever claimed that there had been an attempt to recruit her. She claimed MI5 officers had been secretly meeting Miss Zatuliveter since. She said: 'They are really putting pressure on Katia.'
Miss Zatuliveter was also questioned about her sexual relationship with a person in Nato, according to her friend.

 

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'This girl [Miss Zatuliveter] is clever and good-looking,' she said. 'She works in interesting places.'
Miss Zatuliveter has a master's degree from the peace studies department at Bradford university. She helps draft reports and speeches for Mr Hancock.
The MP said MI5 had not informed him of any interest in his 'Very committed and hard-working' assistant.
He said: 'All I know is that Katia and her friend were stopped at immigration. she told me that she had been questioned when she came back from her holiday. she said it happens to her all the time.'
MI5 declined to comment.


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