Top spooks fear up to 20 MI6 officers working in Germany may have had their cover blown by a Scots security guard.
An urgent security review is now under way after the arrest on espionage charges of David Smith, who worked at the British embassy in Berlin.
Spymasters at London’s Vauxhall Cross secret service HQ need to know how much damage has allegedly been done by the stocky, balding 57-year-old.
And they may have to dismantle MI6’s Berlin station and start again if too many agents have been compromised.
A former spycatcher said: “Smith was what is known in the game as an ears and eyes informant. And us spies cannot get enough of them.”
Smith was brought up in Ayrshire and his parents Diana and Edward live in Ayr.
At the family home yesterday, a man thought to be Edward declined to comment when approached by a reporter.
Although he would not have had access to secret documents, Smith would have known the MI6 staffers in the embassy, had access to phone numbers, and been able to pick up gossip about their private lives. If passed to the Russians, it could have helped identify anyone ripe for defection.
Smith would also have been able to spot other MI6 officers working undercover who visited the embassy.
The ex-spook said: “He would have been able to supply details such as times officers left the embassy, what they were wearing and the cars they drove.” That would have enabled Russian SVR intelligence teams to tail them more easily.
Smith married his Ukrainian wife Svetlana Makogonova in Ayrshire several years ago although the pair are reported to have separated.
It is not known when Smith was allegedly recruited by the SVR but it is understood he was first suspected in November and had been watched since.
He has been accused of giving away counter-terrorism details which could have included floor plans, entry systems and alarms.
Ex-Tory MP Rupert Allason, who uses the alias Nigel West as a spy expert, said: “He would have seen the most recent Foreign Office security review and known about arrangements if the embassy was occupied or hostages taken.”
Former KGB major Boris Karpichkov added: “He could have been ordered to install listening and video devices in restricted areas such as the embassy’s briefing room or the MI6 resident’s office.”
Lawyer Julian Hayes, nephew of disgraced former Labour minister John Stonehouse, has just written a book about his uncle’s spying activities for the Czechs.
He said: “There is a new Cold War. Our politicians and those working closely with them continue to be susceptible to recruitment.”
And Thomas Haldenwang, head of the BvD, Germany’s MI5 equivalent, said that Russia had “significantly” increased
its activity.
Smith lives in a two-room ground floor apartment in Potsdam on the western outskirts of Berlin – once the site of a key KGB East German base.
Russian president Vladimir Putin often went there as a young KGB officer.
Smith was remanded in custody last week in Karlsruhe charged with “activity as an agent for a foreign secret service.”
