SECURITY services and police are investigating if Russia could be involved in arson attacks on properties and a car linked to Sir Keir Starmer.
A Georgian restaurant in London which hosted meetings is a focus of this line of inquiry.
Arson attacks were carried out on properties and a car linked to the PMPA
PANo direct evidence of Kremlin involvement in the plot targeting Sir Keir Starmer has been found so far[/caption]
PAA forensic team at Sir Keir’s family home[/caption]
Scotland Yard detectives are examining the theory that spymasters in Moscow could have recruited private intelligence operatives and criminals to “do their dirty work”.
Sources stress it is only one line of inquiry being probed by the force.
Scotland Yard has so far found no direct evidence of Kremlin involvement in the plot targeting the Prime Minister.
Three men — two Ukrainians and a Romanian — have appeared in court charged over the damage to Mr Starmer’s family home which he rents out, a house where he once lived, and a Toyota Rav4 he had sold, between April 17 and May 13.
Westminster magistrates heard last week that no explanation has been established.
Prosecutor Sarah Przybylska said in court that the alleged conspiracy is currently “unexplained”.
Mr Starmer has been a fierce critic of Russia since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Last October, MI5 chief Sir Ken McCallum warned that Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, has been on a mission to generate “sustained mayhem on British and European streets.”
Sir Ken said GRU agents had carried out “arson, sabotage and more dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness” in Britain.
He said that more than 750 Russian diplomats had been expelled from Europe since the Ukraine invasion and “the great majority” were spies.
He added that Russian state actors have turned to private intelligence operatives and criminals to do “their dirty work”.
His MI6 counterpart Sir Richard Moore warned at the same time that Russian intelligence agencies have “gone a bit feral”.
Western security services have said recently they have uncovered Russian plots to bomb planes, sever transport links and assassinate high-profile figures who have supported Ukraine.
Mr Starmer has called the fires “an attack on all of us, on democracy, and the values that we stand for”.
Ukrainian Petro Pochynok, 34, of North London, has been charged with conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life.
Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, of Romford, East London, faces the same charge.
Ukrainian Roman Lavrynovych, 21, of Sydenham, South East London, has also been charged in connection with the fires.
There is no evidence that the three, remanded into custody to next appear at the Old Bailey on June 6, were aware of any alleged Russian involvement.
Lavrynovych’s mum Nadiya told The Sun from her home in Ivano-Frankivsk: “He was a very proud Ukrainian, and supported Ukraine in the war.
“I never noticed him having any Russian sentiments.”
A ring of Bulgarian spies working by proxy for Russian intelligence were recently jailed for a total of more than 50 years for carrying out espionage missions in the UK and Europe.
The Russian state has previously been accused of the Novichok poisonings in Salisbury, Wilts, in 2018 and the 2006 assassination of defector Alexander Litvinenko with polonium-210 in London.
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