Russia has MORE sleeper agents in UK now than during the Cold War, expert warns MPs

Victor Madeira, a senior fellow at The Institute for Statecraft, provided written evidence to the House of Commons Defence Committee that was mostly focused on the fact that Russia’s intelligence services vastly outnumber those of the UK.

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However, he also spoke about Russia's "Main Intelligence Directorate," the GRU, and its "illegals" operation.

The “illegals” operation was designed by Russia to place spies in Britain and the US where they appear to live ordinary lives, until called upon by Moscow.

In the mid-1980s, researchers estimated that the KGB's First Chief Directorate unit operated 200 "illegal" agents and that the GRU operated another 150.

But, Mr Madiera has told the Business Insider he is “certain those figures are much higher nowadays”.

While testifying to Parliament, Mr Madeira said: "GRU has long deployed ‘illegals’.

"These hand-picked, deep-cover intelligence officers live abroad under assumed ‘legends’: carefully constructed false foreign identities and life stories (over decades in some cases), allowing ‘illegals’ to blend in.

"Nowadays, UK CI and CE [counterintelligence and counterespionage] resources are much diminished, while former Warsaw Pact nationals can easily travel across NATO.

“This is a particular problem if an intelligence officer/asset uses ‘natural cover’ (i.e. their own identity, sometimes called ‘non-official cover’ or NOC).

“A banker or travel agent may be just that – or they may also be intelligence officers or assets (the latter willing or coerced).

"Having few or no traceable links to a hostile intelligence service, NOCs are far more difficult to detect, monitor and counter. This is why they are so valued.

"'Illegals' are the most prized of intelligence officers.”

Fears over covert Russian interference in the internal affairs of other countries have heightened as US President Donald Trump’s presidency has been dogged by claims of collusion with Russians.

Mr Trump has said the allegations were invented by his political opponents and the mainstream media to delegitimise his election win, despite reports from his own intelligence services which concluded the Kremlin had orchestrated a wide-ranging influence operation.

Mr Putin has backed up Donald Trump’s assertions and has denied that his government had played any part in meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.