The 'Russian spy' and her four-year affair with a married Lib Dem MP

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Publication date: 19 October 2011

Katia Zatuliveter 'deliberately targeted womaniser Mike Hancock', says Government lawyer

26-year-old Russian denies her ex-lover is 'influential'

Parliamentary aide also had affairs with several European diplomats

By JACK DOYLE

UPDATED: 07:32 GMT, 19 October 2011

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Katia Zatuliveter pictured at the Immigration Appeals Directorate in London yesterday

An alleged Russian spy yesterday admitted a four-year relationship with a married Liberal Democrat MP - but denied she was a honey-trap sent to snoop on Britain.

Katia Zatuliveter, 26, also had a string of affairs or 'flirtations' with other political figures including a Nato official and a Dutch diplomat.

She is accused of trying to access secret defence information from Mike Hancock, for whom she worked as an aide.

She admitted opening his 'private and confidential' defence select committee letters, and allegedly influenced questions he asked in Parliament.

Yesterday she launched an appeal against Government efforts to deport her and insisted she was not a Russian agent.

Miss Zatuliveter told a hearing that she first met Mr Hancock in 2006 when she was 21 and studying international relations at St Petersburg University.

He attended a conference in the city and she was assigned to ‘chaperone’ him.

On the night they met she resisted his advances after they went for a drink in the lobby of his hotel, she said.

'He told me he wanted to sleep with me. He went up to his room and he brought a CD and some money,' she said.

She refused to sleep with him or take the money. 'He made it very clear from the beginning he was interested in me. He tried to kiss me. He was very charming during this time.

'I was not getting much attention from men during this period.'

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Later she travelled to Moscow to meet him, but told the court her intention was to practise her English before an exam and not to sleep with him.

Jonathan Glasson, for the Home Office, said: ‘The real motivation was so you could develop a sexual relationship wasn’t it?’

She replied: ‘I could prepare to do an exam in St Petersburg or I could go and spend a few days with a native speaker.’

Affair: Married MP Mike Hancock had a four-year relationship with Miss Zatuliveter, it was claimed

Mr Glasson went on: ‘You knew exactly what was going to happen didn’t you, and it didn’t have anything to do with practising your English? It was to develop a relationship with Mr Hancock.’ She answered: ‘No it wasn’t.’

Their relationship began in June 2006, and that year Miss Zatuliveter moved to Britain.

She said she worked part time for Mr Hancock three or four days a month and applied for, and was given, a Parliamentary pass. In 2008 she began working for him full time as a Parliamentary researcher, with access to his Parliamentary email account.

She then moved in with Mr Hancock at his central London flat, where she opened weekly correspondence from the select committee including letters marked ‘private and confidential’. She said: ‘I was able to read them, but I was not interested.’

Together: Miss Zatuliveter had access to the House of Commons and to Mr Hancock's official email account

But Mr Glasson said: ‘You have been reporting from Londongrad, from the heart of British democracy, the UK Parliament.

‘You were much more than a researcher for a backbencher MP. You have ensured that the Russian Intelligence services have eyes and ears in the House of Commons, you were someone who would ensure that questions were asked in Parliament.’

He added: ‘You were pleased to be getting attention from a man who was in a powerful and influential position?’

She replied: ‘I know he is not particularly powerful, he is a back bench MP – why are you trying to portray him as a senior government minister?’

Giving evidence before a panel of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, which will rule whether she can stay in the country, Miss Zatuliveter claimed she had no idea the Portsmouth South MP was married until the end of their affair.

Tribunal: The 26-year-old Russian is currently fighting deportation from Britain

But she admitted taking money from him.

Lawyers for the Security Service claim she knew Mr Hancock was a womaniser and used that knowledge to get close to him. Mr Glasson said Mr Hancock was ‘potentially vulnerable’ to the Russian intelligence services because allegations of his extra-marital affairs ‘have circulated for many years’ and were published in the British press.

Miss Zatuliveter denied any knowledge of this. Later, she said he told her he had an ex-girlfriend in Moscow.

The court heard her role was a ‘dream job for a Russian’.

Partying: Miss Zatuliveter has had affairs with several diplomats, it was claimed

The hearing was also told that Mr Hancock was chairman of the All Parliamentary Group on Russia.

And it heard that Miss Zatuliveter had contact with a suspected Russian spy – given the name ‘Boris’ by the court – who has since been expelled from Britain.

‘He was a Russian intelligence officer, wasn’t he?’ Mr Glasson said.

She replied: ‘That’s what I was told by MI5, so I don’t know it’s true.

'But they also said that I was, so I don’t know.’

She claimed she broke off contact with Boris on Mr Hancock’s advice after he tried to arrange a meeting with her.

Miss Zatuliveter said there was ‘no truth’ in MI5’s allegation that she was an agent for the Russian intelligence services by April 2006.

She added: ‘I am innocent and I don’t believe I should be deported without having done anything.

'I am legally here, I have a work permit until August 2012.’

She was served with deportation notice in December 2010.

The hearing continues.

Persons: Michael Hancock, MP