Russian spy trial threatens to embarrass MI6

A mentally unstable former Russian diplomat who wrote steamy spy thrillers goes on trial for treason in Moscow today, accused of spying for MI6.

In the final chapter of a bizarre espionage scandal that has dragged on for almost four years, the long-awaited trial of Platon Obukhov, a second secretary at the Russian foreign ministry, threatens to cause the British intelligence service con­siderable embarrassment.

Mr Obukhov, 30, was arrested in April 1996 by the federal security service (FSB), allegedly while broadcasting classified information "of a political and strategic defence character" to MI6's headquarters in London.

The Moscow Times identified his controller as Norman Mac-Sween, who was listed as a counsellor in the British embassy in Moscow.

If found guilty, Mr Obukhov faces up to 20 more years' imprisonment. The British government has never denied that he was in contact with MI6.

Mr Obukhov's father, Alexei, is a former Soviet deputy foreign minister and senior disarmament negotiator.

The arrest prompted the worst spy row between London and Moscow since the end of the cold war, with Britain and Russia each expelling four diplomats. A senior FSB official heralded Mr Obukhov's exposure as "one of the biggest blows to the world's oldest and most experienced intelligence services".

The trial has been postponed until now to enable him to undergo compulsory psychiatric tests. He was sent to the Serbsky psychological institute, the notorious clinic which used to declare dissidents insane in Soviet times.

Although Russian officials concede that the shock of Mr Obukhov's arrest made him temporarily unbalanced, they claim that he later simulated mental illness to evade the maximum punishment. Government doctors say he is well enough to stand trial.

His parents insist that he has been psychologically disturbed since childhood - attempting several times to kill himself and set fire to the family home - and that he still suffers from schizophrenia.

Footage showing Mr Obukhov confessing to his alleged crimes was broadcast on Russian television soon after his arrest. He was filmed in his prison cell, grinning strangely, rolling his eyes and talking incoherently, dressed in a dunce's hat, odd socks and laceless gym shoes.

Russian television also broadcast grainy extracts, apparently from surveillance cameras, allegedly showing him transmitting messages from a Moscow trolleybus with a sophisticated radio device.

Alongside his confession, he claimed that he made contacts with MI6 officials to provide material for his novels. Mr Obukhov has published 14 espionage potboilers, brimming with sex and violence.

His mother, Olga, said yesterday: "This is a medical case and not a spy case. I don't know why the British secret services recruited a sick person to work for them - they behaved like scoundrels. Now my son is perishing in a gulag."

Mr Obukhov's lawyer, Galina Krylova, spoke to him earlier this week and described his condition as unpredictable. "Sometimes he feels alright, sometimes he becomes extremely aggressive. He does not always understand what is going on around him "

She said he had not received medical treatment since October 1998, when he was moved from the Serbsky institute to a Moscow jail. "Officials said he was faking his madness and they stopped his treatment."

Russia has more spies than the United States and the gap has widened since the cold war, the staff director of the US house of representatives' intelligence committee claims.

"Most places, it [Russian intelligence] is a factor of several larger than the US intelligence presence, and that factor is larger than it was 10 years ago," John Millis told a symposium at the Smithsonian institution.

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