KGB double agent says West should have cracked down on Russia after novichok poisonings

A KGB double agent living in the North East of England who still fears being visited by Vladimir Putin’s ‘hitmen’ says the West should have cracked down on Russia after the novichok poisonings in Salisbury.

Victor Makarov, 67, attended the KGB’s spy school in the same year as Putin but later put his life on the line when he passed Soviet secrets to MI5 and MI6 for a period of two years.

He was caught and arrested, but in 1992 he was smuggled out of Russia to the UK where he has stayed ever since, making Northumberland his home, but claims he will always remain on the Russian president’s hit list. 

Speaking from his housing authority flat in Haltwhistle, Mr Makarov said the horrors happening in Ukraine right now could have been avoided if the world had taken Putin seriously after the assassination attempt of former spy Sergei Skripal, in Salisbury, which led to the death of Dawn Sturgess. 

Victor Makarov said the horrors in Ukraine could have been avoided if the West had cracked down on Russia after the novichok poisonings in Salisbury

He said: ‘This could easily have been prevented. 

‘If Putin had been taken seriously this would not have happened.

‘The world leaders gave Putin the wrong signal. The reaction to Salisbury was not strong enough. All this bloodshed could have been prevented.

‘Nobody in Russia agrees with this war. People are not loyal to Putin, they are afraid of him.

‘Russia is no longer my country, it stopped being my country a long time ago, but it does make me sad to see Russia involved in this.

‘The Russians have lost already 5,000 people. It is really sad to see.’

Mr Makarov is pictured in 2018 in Haltwhistle (left) and when he was a KGB agent (right)

He said he has faced no hostility as a Russian living in the UK since the invasion but said many people have asked him questions and he has tried to explain the situation.  

‘It’s not easy for them to understand because it’s fully illogical to people in Northumberland,’ he added.

‘The people here know who I am. They know the invasion is not supported by the Russian people.’

After enlisting in the KGB, Mr Makarov said he realised the secret security service was corrupt.

He worked in the cryptoanalytical department where he deciphered diplomatic telegrams that came from embassies around the world bugged by the Russians.

He was convinced by his English tutor, a woman he fell in love with, to approach the British intelligence services with the information he was gathering.

He was subsequently caught by a former colleague and arrested on July 8, 1987.

Sergei Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia (pictured together) were poisoned in Salisbury in March 2018. Mr Makarov said the West should have cracked down on Russia after that attack

Mr Sergei and his daughter Yulia survived the attack but it later claimed the life of Dawn Sturgess (pictured) who was exposed to the novichok nerve agent that had been discarded in a perfume bottle

Mr Makarov spent five years in a gulag labour camp in the Ural mountains but was freed in early 1992, a few months after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

With the help of two MI6 officers, he escaped to Britain on a false passport.

After former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in Salisbury in March 2018, Mr Makarov feared Russian assassins would target him next.

Ms Sturgess died when she was exposed to the novichok nerve agent that had been discarded in a perfume bottle. 

Mr Makarov at the time called on the UK Government to take action to protect all former spies.

And he told of his fears that the West underestimated the threat posed by Putin and that leaders must stop trying to appease him.

He warned Russia posed a bigger threat than Islamic extremism and urged then Prime Minister Theresa May to take tough action against Mr Putin to keep the UK safe.