Secret files reveal Prince’s diplomat pal ‘is a KGB spy’

By Jason Lewis
Last updated at 1:27 AM on 16th August 2009

A high-profile foreign ambassador could be expelled from Britain after it was revealed that top secret intelligence files suggest he is a KGB spy.

Kairat Abusseitov, Kazakhstan’s attache to London, is already at the centre of cash-for-lobbying claims surrounding Prince Andrew and multi-million-pound oil deals in the former Soviet republic.

Now evidence passed to The Mail on Sunday suggests he has been a KGB agent for 20 years.

Honour: Mr Abusseitov is formally welcomed by the Queen

Last night, a senior member of the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee called for the Foreign Office to investigate the claims.

Mr Abusseitov has met the Queen, holds discussions with senior Ministers and has been involved in confidential United Nations discussions on terrorism and nuclear weapons.

But according to the secret files, he was recruited by the KGB in 1988 as a spy and is codenamed ‘Delano’.

Part of a 175-page file, obtained from former Soviet intelligence archives, reveals details of his alleged career as an agent.

The revelation is the latest controversy to hit Britain’s relations with Kazakhstan and the role of Prince Andrew, the Foreign Office’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment.

Mr Abusseitov is honorary president of the British Kazakh Society and Prince Andrew is its honorary patron.

Both regularly attend its events. The society also brings the ambassador into regular contact with some of Britain’s most powerful companies, including defence firm BAE Systems.

But a KGB report, written in 1992, says: ‘Kairat Khuatovich Abusseitov served as an agent of Republic of Kazakhstan KGB Intelligence Department during the period June 1988 till May 1992...’

Discussing Mr Abusseitov’s future suitability as an agent abroad, the report’s author, Major A.V.Efimov, of the KGB’s First Criminal Investigative Department, says: ‘He has the chance of going abroad as a member of the Centre of Strategic Research’s delegations, and his perfect knowledge of English allows him contact with those foreigners who interest the KGB.’

Major Efimov then recommends: ‘Appointing Abusseitov as a part-time servant of Kazakhstan KGB First Intelligence Department, with a monthly reward of 700 roubles.’

Former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell, a member of the Commons Foreign Affairs and the Intelligence and Security committees, said: ‘If there is any question he has gone beyond purely diplomatic behaviour then it is for the Foreign Office to determine if he should be [declared] persona non grata.’

Last night, Ambassador Abusseitov confirmed he had regular contact with the KGB during the Eighties and Nineties – and with Major Efimov – but said: ‘I was never his agent and I was never paid by the KGB. I was not a spy for him or anyone else
in the KGB and I was never paid by them.’