Russian spooks played dirty tricks on a British diplomat’s young family while he was with Princess Diana, newly released files show.
The hitherto secret memo reveals how Andrew Carter and his wife had been at the prestigious Bolshoi Theatre with the Princess of Wales while they left their two young children with a babysitter.
They arrived home from her much-feted outing to ‘strange happenings’, including the nanny and their son being in a state of distress, two cases of water being missing and a computer, which had been disconnected, having beeen plugged in with a CD-ROM inserted.
The incident in 1995 led the deputy ambassador to warn that the ‘rising trend’ of dark arts would harm bilateral relations between the nations.
Other nefarious activity blamed on the FSB security and counter-intelligence agency — where Vladimir Putin was once director — included meat placed in vegetarians’ homes and glass scattered behind the front door of a flat belonging to a couple who walked barefoot indoors.
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In a cable marked ‘confidential’, Mr Carter wrote: ‘I deduce from this that we received a visitation on that evening, the Russians having no doubt concluded that everyone in the house would be out.
‘The DA [duty attaché] was in fact at home but tells me that he heard and saw nothing. The militia guard on the gate would of course have known that the children and the babysitter were in the flat.
‘I realise that a visit was inevitable sooner or later, and was entirely relaxed about this. I am however concerned that the Russians should carry out such an operation when the flat was occupied.’
Child cried ‘uncontrollably’
The cable was sent to several British government contacts on June 19, 1995, headlined ‘probable entry at Vakhtangova 9’, in reference to the residential address in Moscow.
Diana, then aged 34, had been the theatre’s guest of honour for the performance of ‘Les Sylphides’ and was given a standing ovation by the audience. The royal had been on a whistlestop two-day tour, with her itinerary also taking in a children’s hospital and a primary school supporting disabled pupils.
The files show the mendacity of the former Soviet government, with the shadow games taking place as she was given a fanfare by the host nation in front of the cameras.
Mr Carter writes: ‘I feel I should record, in greater detail than I shall on the monthly return, some strange happenings at my flat on the evening of 15 June when most of us were at the Bolshoi Theatre with Princess Diana.’
The charge d’affaires reported that the trusted babysitter was the granddaughter of the couple’s usual nanny.
He noted: ‘When we returned home at 11.15pm, our front door was (unusually) locked and Katya was present.
‘She looked nervous.
‘Visit by the FSB’
‘She said that our son Ben had gone to bed at the usual time (about 7.00 pm), but had shortly woken up and cried uncontrollably for about two hours. The granddaughter had been at her wit’s end and had telephoned her grandmother who had immediately come in a taxi.
‘The granddaughter then went home.’
In another cable, marked ‘secret’, Mr Carter recommended to his Foreign and Commonwealth Office colleagues that a protest be made to Russia’s foreign ministry about a ‘rising trend of harassment.’
He reported the embassy having detected ‘recruitment operations’ to turn staff into agents and around five flat entries a month.
The message reads: ‘Security Department are aware of harassment in St Petersburg.
‘Last week Mr Jack reported to me evidence of intrusions into his flat. On one such occasion broken glass was left on the floor near the front door.
‘Since the Jacks (Mrs Jack is Japanese) follow Japanese practice and remove their shoes on entry, the implications are obvious.’
Mr Carter said that the circumstances of his own home entry ‘point to a visit from the FSB’ and the frightened babysitter had since been reluctant to work for the family.
He also reported discovering three weeks later that the family’s Volvo, garaged at their private residence with a 24-hour militia guard, had been interfered with.
The battery was almost flat and when an attempt was made to start the car, the alarm system, which had not been set, triggered due to three wires being cut.
In the redacted memo, the diplomat writes: ‘The sophisticated vandalism of my car, which the Russians must have known would be noticed, gives the problem a new dimension.
‘The difference between the latest incident and other acts of vandalism against staff cars, eg tyre slashing, broken windows etc — is that it is impossible to attribute it to petty criminals
‘While such activity against any member of staff is unacceptable, to direct it against the charge d’affaires must have some symbolism.’
Mr Carter added: ‘As seen from here, to fail to react at this point might encourage the FSB to up the ante still further to see just how much we are prepared to take.’
‘Considerable distress’
The British official recommends an ‘urgent appointment’ with the then Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Krylov.
The speaking note reads: ‘In recent months, members of the British Embassy and the Consul-General St Petersburg have reported an increasing trend of various forms of organised harassment.
‘A frequent form of harassment is unauthorised entry into private residential accommodation.
‘Such activity cannot be attributed to burglars, since it is rare for anything to be taken, and evidence of entry is provided in other ways, eg by leaving windows open, by moving objects around, by leaving meat in kitchens of vegetarians, or by leaving broken glass on the floor.’
Mr Carter then related that the flat entry had caused ‘considerable distress to my children’, the files released at the National Archives show.
The note ends: ‘I am instructed to request an assurance from you that such activity will cease. Its continuation could not fail to affect the climate in which we conduct our bilateral relations.’
Grey zone war
There is no record of the Russian response in the dossier.
However, a line can be drawn from the spy and sabotage games beginning in the Cold War to the present day, when shadowy Russian ‘grey zone’ tactics are a reality in Britain and Europe.
Key milestones in the timeline include the murder of Alexander Litvinenko by Russian agents, the Salisbury poisonings and, since the outset of Vladimir Putin’s all-out attack on Ukraine, acts of sabotage and disinformation likely directed by the Kremlin.
MI5 director Ken McCallum has warned in a speech of Russian agents or proxies being ‘on a sustained mission to generate mayhem’ in Britain, including ‘arson, sabotage and more.’
Fiona Galbraith, of Buckinghamshire New University, a former British Army intelligence officer, told Metro: ‘This type of activity is reminiscent of the type of tactics we now call “grey warfare”.
‘It’s deniable and cannot be pinned on any particular group or organisation, although most on the British side at the time are likely to have believed it was part of a deliberate campaign.
‘More recently, we have seen the Russian state implicated in significant deniable attacks.
‘They include the attempted murder of former double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018 and the so-called “Little Green Men” who spearheaded the invasion of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014.’
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