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A 41-year-old American soldier has been arrested near Gloucester on suspicion of spying for Russia, in an operation British counter-terrorism police carried out with help from US military and law enforcement agencies.
The serviceman was detained on Tuesday under national security legislation and taken to a police station in London, where he remains in custody, the Metropolitan Police said.
“This significant arrest and investigation is a result of close collaboration between UK and US authorities,” said Vicki Evans, Senior National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing.
“The allegations are serious and our investigation is very much ongoing,” Evans added.
Officers said the case was “not linked to any other ongoing Counter Terrorism Policing investigations.”
FBI director Kash Patel thanked British police and intelligence services for their work on the case.
“This important arrest involves allegations of espionage, which is of the utmost concern to the United States and our allies,” Patel said in the police statement.
Sean Stinchon, commanding general of US Army Counterintelligence Command, said the alleged conduct of a “senior soldier, entrusted with sensitive information” was a “sobering reminder that insider threats are real and persistent”.
The Pentagon referred questions to the US Army, which did not immediately respond to requests for more details.
The arrest is the latest in a series of espionage cases in the UK linked to Moscow. Britain has been one of Kyiv’s strongest backers since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In September, a British man appeared in court in London accused of preparing to sabotage drone manufacturing sites for Russian military intelligence.
Relations between London and Moscow were strained well before the war. In 2006, former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London, and in 2018 there was an attempt to poison double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.
Additional sources • AFP