More than 400 russian spies expelled from Europe in 2022 — MI5

British counterintelligence (MI5) chief Ken McCallum said the expulsion of more than 400 suspected russian spies from across Europe this year was the biggest strategic blow to moscow in recent history and came as a surprise to kremlin leader vladimir putin.

Reuters reports this.

McCallum said a huge number of russian officials had been expelled around the world, including more than 600 from Europe, of whom more than 400 were found to be spies.

"This dealt the most significant strategic blow to the russian intelligence services in the recent history of Europe. And together with the coordinated waves of sanctions, this scale took putin by surprise," he added.

The MI5 head also said Britain had refused more than 100 russian diplomatic visa applications this year on national security grounds.

He also called moscow's assumptions about Britain's involvement in undermining the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea absurd.

As reported, last month in Norway, the cops caught a spy from the russian federation who posed as a Brazilian.