Questions on British Security

Neil Mackay in the Sunday Herald writes that MI5 has been warning the Blair government that Russian intelligence has been operating at high levels in Britain for at least three years now, but that the warnings seem to have fallen on deaf ears:

The apparent murder of Litvinenko - which has been blamed by many on the Kremlin - has also raised serious concerns about British national security. Tomorrow, the Conservative shadow home secretary David Davis is to demand answers about how polonium-210, the substance believed to have killed Litvinenko, was brought into Britain.

Friends of Litvinenko last night told the Sunday Herald that if the UK and US did not act against Russia they should be considered culpable in the deaths of dissidents.

Oleg Gordievsky, the most famous KGB defector to Britain and friend of Litvinenko, said: "Blair and Bush were happy to kiss and embrace Putin while he was killing in Chechnya, killing in Russia and now killing abroad."