Three arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia

Three people have been arrested on suspicion of spying on behalf of Russia, the Metropolitan Police has said.

A 41-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman were arrested at an address in Grays, Essex, the force said. A 46-year-old man was arrested at a separate address in the same area.

All three were arrested on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service, contrary to Section 3 of the National Security Act 2023, and were taken to a police station in London.

The Met said the country to which the allegations relate is Russia.

Officers carried out searches at the two addresses in Essex and all three people have since been released on conditional bail, while the investigation remains ongoing, the Met said.

Cdr Dominic Murphy, head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, said the force had seen an increasing number of people in the UK being recruited by foreign intelligence services.

Last year, the head of MI5, Sir Ken McCallum, said "Russian state actors" were "turning to proxies for their dirty work, including private intelligence operatives and criminals from both the UK and third countries".

He added: "The GRU [Russia's military intelligence agency] in particular is on a sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets: we've seen arson, sabotage and more."

A group of men is awaiting sentencing for an arson attack on a Ukraine-linked warehouse in London that was carried out after they were recruited by the Russian Wagner mercenary group. The arrests on Wednesday are not linked to that attack.

The Wagner group is a private military organisation that acts on behalf of the Russian state.

The UK government proscribed it as a terrorist group in September 2023.