A Russian tycoon and prominent Kremlin critic has warned that agents linked to Vladimir Putin are already operating in Britain and could be preparing further attacks against the UK, as tensions between Moscow and Western capitals continue to intensify.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the exiled former oil magnate, claimed that Russia views Britain as its “main enemy in Europe” and would be willing to use “any means available” to strike at UK interests through covert or hybrid operations.
He suggested that Western allies of Ukraine should assume they are already under sustained pressure from Russian intelligence services, including potential sabotage and clandestine activity on British soil.
According to Mr Khodorkovsky, the primary instrument of such activity would be the Kremlin’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, which has previously been accused by Western governments of conducting overseas operations targeting defectors and dissidents.
British authorities have already attributed the 2018 Salisbury attack to GRU operatives, in which former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. They survived, but local resident Dawn Sturgess later died after exposure to the substance.
Mr Khodorkovsky also warned of a second layer of threat involving operatives linked to Russia’s domestic security services, including the Federal Security Service (FSB), arguing that Moscow maintains a broad network capable of supporting covert operations abroad.
A third category, he claimed, involves the use of intermediaries such as organised criminals or loosely affiliated individuals, whom he described as a lower-cost yet still “effective” method for conducting sabotage and disruption.
His comments come amid continuing concern over Russia’s use of so-called hybrid tactics across Europe, including arson attacks, cyber operations and influence campaigns linked by Western intelligence agencies to state-backed actors.
In one recent case cited in court proceedings, two men were jailed for their roles in an arson attack on a Ukrainian-owned business in east London, after prosecutors said they had been in contact with the Wagner network and recruited others to carry out the operation.
Mr Khodorkovsky said Britain should assume further attempts at covert activity are likely and dismissed suggestions that President Putin could be removed by internal rivals within Russia’s elite.
There has been no official response from the Kremlin to the claims. However, Moscow has repeatedly denied allegations of state-sponsored covert operations in the UK and other Western countries, describing them as politically motivated accusations.
British security services have previously warned that the threat from hostile state activity remains “persistent and evolving”, with counter-intelligence operations continuing to focus on disruption, detection and deterrence.
For now, Mr Khodorkovsky’s intervention is likely to add to already heightened political sensitivity around Russia’s capabilities and intentions — even as officials caution against treating individual claims as evidence of specific imminent plots.
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