Russian spies luring unsuspecting men into honeytraps are still at large in the West, an expert has claimed.
These spies are claimed to be similar to Olga Kolobova, also known a Maria Adela, who tried to infiltrate NATO’s naval HQ posing as a jet-set jewellery designer based in Naples and sleeping with officers there.
Kolobova also sought to befriend members of one of Britain's richest families, the wealthy McAlpines, in order to gain access to establishment circles.
The team that exposed the Russian agent, who fled to Italy and returned home amid GRU military intelligence, feared her cover was blown.
They say there are many more agents still at large.
Russian expert Christo Grozev has stated in the last two months alone we realise the GRU has lost two of its spies.
A colleague of Olga Kolobova was arrested two months ago when the Dutch services tracked him down.
He said: "Our estimate is there were approximately 20 agents like this in Europe so now 18.”
Such agents that live under a false identity in the West, such as Anna Chapman, an SVR foreign intelligence service asset exposed by the FBI in 2010 are “extremely important during war time”.
It is now harder to infiltrate agents posing as for example as tourists into the West, as with the GRU hit squad that attempted to kill defector Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in 2018.
Grozev indicated the Bellingcat team will expose more GRU undercover agents like Kolobova.
He added: “As for how much she managed to achieve, I think she is one of the successful GRU projects, unlike many others.
"Unlike even the SVR’s project who is usually in charge of illegal programmes
"Their biggest post-Soviet project failed in 2010 when America arrested and sent out at least 10 deeply-hidden agents.”
This was a group that included the glamorous flame-haired Chapman, who had been married to a British man, and whose UK passport was cancelled by then Home Secretary Theresa May.
She is known to have cultivated a senior business figure close to the government, and a member of the House of Lords, although the extent of any espionage damage in the UK is unclear.
Kolobova “managed to live quite long under her legend, and she met quite a number of officers, as well as NATO’s legal consultants and photographers”.
She likely was able to describe to the GRU the “financial problems” and “weaknesses” of NATO personnel she befriended and bedded.
“This is very valuable information because this is precisely how intelligence services profile their future recruits,” he said.
“We know what she actually did, but we know that she was in the position which was incredibly useful for the GRU.”
She was exposed because of a GRU blunder, which meant that the church mentioned in her “birth certificate” where she was “born” did not exist at the time.
It was built nine years later.
Chapman, now 40, was unmasked as a Russian spy by the FBI in New York, and later exchanged in a spy swap that saw Skripal come to Britain.
She is now a TV presenter, influencer and owns her own clothing line in Moscow.
