UK police were questioning on Wednesday a senior American soldier assigned to Nato and suspected of spying for Russia, after his arrest amid a joint investigation with the US military and law enforcement.

The espionage case, the latest involving suspected Kremlin agents in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, comes with tensions heightened between Moscow and various European capitals after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

It also follows recent security scares at two British air force bases hosting the US military, which officials have accused Iran of being behind. Tehran has denied the allegations.

UK Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) have said the 41-year-old American soldier was detained near Gloucester, southwest England, on suspicion of violating national security laws and taken to a London police station.

Later on Tuesday, a senior Nato military official confirmed the soldier was assigned to its Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC), the alliance’s 20-nation, high-readiness force led by the British Army.

Based at Imjin Barracks near Gloucester, it can deploy at short notice anywhere in Europe or globally under the direct operational command of Nato’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

Imjin is also just a few miles from the UK’s sensitive GCHQ intelligence, security and cyber agency headquarters.

Probe ‘ongoing’

Vicki Evans, CTP’s senior national coordinator, said the “significant” arrest and investigation followed close collaboration between UK and US authorities.

“The allegations are serious and our investigation is very much ongoing,” she said in a statement late Tuesday.

US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Kash Patel thanked British authorities — including the country’s domestic spy agency, MI5 — and their American counterparts “for their outstanding work”.

“This important arrest involves allegations of espionage, which is of the utmost concern to the United States and our allies,” he said in a statement.

Police arrested the US soldier under two sections of the UK’s national security laws, one relating to obtaining or disclosing protected information and the other to assisting a foreign intelligence service.

The law allows them to hold him without charge for up to 14 days.

Police said “the country to which the allegations relate is Russia”, adding officers were carrying out searches at two locations in Gloucestershire.

But asked about the case, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday: “This arrest has nothing to do with us. We do not know what it is connected with.”

‘Sobering’

Sean Stinchon, the commanding general of US Army Counterintelligence Command, said the arrested person was a “senior soldier, entrusted with sensitive information”.

He called it a “sobering reminder that insider threats are real and persistent”.

The UK-US probe is not linked to any other ongoing investigations, the police statement said.

Western countries have for years accused the Kremlin of espionage within their borders, as well as masterminding a string of incidents to undermine support for Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion.

In September, a British man appeared in a London court over allegations that he was preparing to sabotage a drone factory and drone manufacturing sites on behalf of Russian military intelligence.

Last year, a 66-year-old British man was jailed for seven years for his attempts to spy for Russia.

Beyond Britain, a number of European countries have made similar arrests, while Russia has also detained individuals it has claimed are spies.

On Wednesday, Russian security services said two “agents” working for Polish intelligence had been arrested in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which borders Poland and Lithuania.

It followed Poland — a key supporter of neighbouring Ukraine in its war — announcing last week that it had arrested six people suspected of spying for Moscow and supplying its military.