Vladimir Putin has been warned of an outlandish “British assassination plot” if he travels to Hungary to meet Donald Trump. Russian foreign intelligence colonel Andrey Bezrukov – a former illegal SVR agent working undercover in the US – cautioned the Russian dictator: “Do not go to Budapest.”
He called for the expected upcoming meeting with Mr Trump to be switched urgently to Dubai to avoid what he called an “absolutely treacherous operation” by the British. “I have very, very serious concerns about Budapest,” said Mr Bezrukov, whose cover was blown in 2010 when Russian glamour spy Anna Chapman, then a British citizen, was detained by the FBI. Both were part of a spy swap involving 10 Russian agents the same year, and Mr Bezrukov, 65, is now a professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations [MGIMO], while also working as an adviser for state oil giant Rosneft. The “entire mentality” of the British “is structured in such a way that if Putin doesn’t exist, then there’s no problem… firstly, Russia will fall apart,” Mr Bezrukov alleged on Russian state TV.
The ruling class in London “understand that Britain may soon cease to exist,” he alleged. “After all, the elite within it, which was a very, very organised gang, is now losing its power, not because it’s doing a poor job, but because the country itself is changing so drastically that it’s melting.
“And for them, a blow at us, including, well, an absolutely treacherous operation that could be carried out based on this meeting in Budapest, is a decision.”
He went on to claim, without providing any evidence: “And they will take it. They will risk everything, because they are risking everything now.
“And so I would strongly advise against [Putin going to Budapest].”
Mr Bezrukov gave no evidence for his claim against the British.
He was then asked by President Putin’s leading TV propagandist, Vladimir Solovyov, how to avoid the assassination risk.
“There’s a wonderful country called the United Arab Emirates [which could host the Trump-Putin talks],” he said.
Mr Solovyov claimed that Mr Putin was “so brave” he was likely to take the risk of travelling to Budapest.
Mr Bezrukov replied: “Sometimes it’s not good… The Supreme Commander [Putin] represents the country, and here the interests of the country are more important than the courage of one person… ”
Mr Bezrukov was a KGB and SVR spy who worked as an illegal ‘sleeper agent’ under the pseudonym Donald Howard Heathfield alongside wife and fellow agent Elena Vavilova, 62, known as Tracey Ann Foley. He is also a member of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy, and was given a lucrative post as an adviser to Putin crony Igor Sechin, head of Rosneft oil giant.
The undercover couple had moved from Canada to Cambridge, Massachusetts, raising two sons, Timothy and Alexander, who had no idea their parents were spies. The sons now have Canadian passports. Surprisingly, since his unmasking, Mr Bezrukov has travelled to Britain using a second passport from Cyprus, according to espionage expert Sergey Kanev.
A Putin trip to Budapest would be his first since the start of the war against Ukraine in February 2022.
Hungary has assured Moscow that it will not act on an arrest warrant for Mr Putin from the International Criminal Court if the dictator travels to Budapest. The warrant relates to Mr Putin’s alleged illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and Russian-controlled territory, seen as a war crime.
