Britsih Secret Service MI5 has drawn up a secret list of some 30 members of the House of Lords with "direct" financial links to China or Russia, Daily Mail reported, adding that the intelligence service considers their influence on UK Parliament to be a major threat to national security.
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The media outlet claims that there are peers with board memberships on Moscow-owned companies or positions with Chinese firms, as well as some Russian expert, an author of books about the country and executives of Russian banks, mining firms and state-backed shipping conglomerates.
Security sources alleged that concerns within MI5 and the Home Office went beyond commercial ties, with some members of the House of Lords "suspected of being cultivated by enemy agents".
The British outlet went on to claim that some of the comments made in the Lords chamber had been published by RT, which was earlier accused by the Britsih Office of Communications (Ofcom) of breaking broadcasting rules.
In a separate development, the Czech counter-intelligence agency, Security Information Service (BIS), has issued warnings of intensified espionage activity by Russia and China, the BBC reported. The agency reportedly said that both countries were pursuing a long-term strategy of undermining the West, with Chinese spies posing risk to Czech citizens, while Russian agents wage hybrid wars to gain influence over the country.
Earlier this week, Alexander Venediktov, an aide to the Russian Security Council secretary, told Sputnik that each new stage of UK's hysteria over alleged threat from Russia coincided with aggravation of crisis related to the "painful" Brexit process.
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Both Moscow and Beijing have repeatedly been accused of espionage by a number of European countries and the United States. The two countries flatly denied the allegations as unfounded.
