A web of Russian spy cells under Putin’s command could be operating in Britain, a counter-terror chief has warned.

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism unit, has said there is a growing threat of Russia using criminal proxies to spy on British soil.

The warning comes as six Bulgarians were convicted yesterday of spying for the Kremlin.

The Great Yarmouth-based ring, dubbed ‘the Minions’, received orders from Russian intelligence services and conducted spying on an ‘industrial scale’.

For three years the group plotted to kidnap and murder critics of Vladimir Putin and spied on a US airbase in Germany.

Scotland Yard copper Murphy has revealed this ‘sophisticated’ espionage cell are not alone.

He said: ‘The reality is this won’t be the only activity Russia is conducting here in the UK and we have seen other disruptions here in recent months.

‘As the UK becomes a more hostile environment as a result of our work we will see them increasingly use proxies to conduct their activities.

‘Within counter-terrorism policing we are seeing more than 20% of our demand now coming from threat posed from foreign states to our national security so this is an ever growing challenge for us.’

Bulgarians Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, were found guilty at the Old Bailey yesterday over one of the ‘largest and most complex’ enemy operations ever discovered in the UK.

The ring ran operations dating back to August 2020 and hid listening devices inside everyday items like a rock, men’s ties and a Coke bottle.

They plotted to deploy a ‘true sexy b****’ honeytrap to ruin the reputation of a Bellingcat investigative journalist Christo Grozev in 2021.

Operatives stalked Grozev across Vienna, Valencia and Montenegro.

Another journalist targeted in November 2022 was Roman Dobrokhotov, founder of The Insider, who believes orderes were coming directly from the Russian President himself.

Dobrokhotov told the BBC: I”m very lucky to be alive actually.

‘I think assassination was one of the options that they reviewed.’

‘In this dictatorship, you would never take responsibility on your own to do such a political stuff. You will always have a direct order from the president.’

The spy cell was ultimately brought down by raids on properties in London and ringleader Orlin Roussev’s address in Great Yarmouth in February 2023.

Cops discovered a treasure trove of hi-tech spyware, including a £120,000 device for intercepting mobile phone numbers, 11 drones, and 75 fake passports.

The groups director is said to be alleged Russian agent Jan Marsalek, 44, an Austrian businessman on Interpol’s wanted list.

Kremlin spies have wrecked havoc on British soil before.

Russian operatives are believed to be behind the deadly Salisbury poisonings in July 2018.

The poisonings were a botched attempt to kill former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia at a restaurant in the city.

Two suspects are believed to have carried out the attempt using the deadly nerve agent Novichok, which was concealed in a perfume bottle.

Russian agents also posed a huge threats to British national security during the Cold War.

The Cambridge Five were a group of Briish spies recruited by the Soviet Union (now Russia) at Cambridge University in the 1930s.

They later infiltrated high-ranking positions in British intelligence and government.

Kim Philby was the most famous of them all. The senior MI6 officer passed on highly sensitive information for years before defecting to the Soviet Union in 1963.

Met commander Murphy pledged that security services would not take their ‘eye off the ball’ in fighting underground Russian spy networks in the UK today.

He added: ‘We are committed to working closely with intelligence agencies in this country and our international partners to disrupt activity by foreign states.

‘We have been working hard to make the UK a hostile working operating environment for these countries.

‘This is an example of that because this group were contracted to operate on behalf of Russian intelligence services because this is a hostile environment for them to operate in directly here.’

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