Liberal Democrat MP's assistant questioned by MI5 over spy links

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:25 PM on 30th August 2010

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 who works for Mike Hancock MP
Mike Hancock, Liberal Democrat MP
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
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.
 
People:
Anna Chapman
Places:
London,
Croatia,
United Kingdom,
Russia,
Gatwick Airport
Organisations:
Russian Intelligence
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I find these comments quite offensive to be honest. I am Russian and have a dual citizenship. I've lived in this country for over 10 years, having done A levels, then a degree and finally I've been working full time in London for the past 3 years

It is so comical - not every single Russian person is a spy and also if a Russian person is just as capable of doing the job (or maybe even more so for whatever reason) then there is nothing wrong with hiring them.

Also, due to the fact that I have lived 2/3 of my life in English speaking countries (first USA then here) English has become more of a 1st language to me than Russian and it only makes sense for me to be employed in an English speaking country

And finally my fiance is English and works for the government and I do have to go through as many clearance checks as he does as we live together....but do not worry England I am not about to run to the Kremlin and sell your secrets out
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If miss Zatuliveter is a Russian citizen and as russia is not yet part of the EU, under what circumstances has she been granted UK residency and permitted to work here? It is not as though her employment is specialized enough to meet current immigration standards, and there is a shortage of workers in that field in the UK.
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Britain is in such shambolic state courtesy of NuLab Rabble that it isn't beyond the realms of reality that Osama Bin Laden is employed in Whitehall or GCHQ.
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Right people, its time to stop blaming everything on Labour. The fact of the matter is that the Lib/Lab/Con merchants are just different faces of the same beast and has been so for twenty years now. Blair got in on a tory manifesto and Cameron got in (just) by reworking Blairs election campaign. We need to stop blaming the old boys club that is parliament and look a little closer to home. Those most culpable for the destruction of Britain are the British people themselves but in this day and age of shirking any sort of blame or responsibility, we all look to blame another. We have all stood by and watched as the government and the EU have systematically destroyed our country. Sod the "stiff upper lip" that we're all so proud of, politicians know that that just means they can pile on the cr*p and we'll wear it. We all had a chance of real change but the majority showed themselves to be cowards when faced with the choice at the polling booth. A vote for Lib/Lab/Con is no vote for change
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What do you call a British polititian with two brain cells? Gifted !
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Perhaps they couldn't find a British person who was willing to do that job. My God, we're picky here in the UK. What do you think?
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