A man who passed highly sensitive information to the Russian state while working as a security guard at the British Embassy in Berlin was jailed for 13 years and two months in a London court on February 17. The court heard that David Ballantyne Smith, 58, collected confidential information for more than three years, including "secret" government communications with then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other sensitive documents. Smith pleaded guilty in November to eight offenses under the Official Secrets Act, including one charge relating to passing information to General Major Sergei Chukhrov, the Russian military attache to Berlin, in November 2020. To read the original story from Reuters,click here.
British Embassy Guard Who Spied For Russia Jailed For 13 Years
David Ballantyne Smith meets with "Irina," an MI5 officer posing as a member of Russia's military intelligence service, on August 9, 2021, in this still image taken from a covert camera video played in court in London on February 13.