Many of Russia's 59 diplomats in the United Kingdom are intelligence officers. But while 23 of these officers have now been expelled by the British government over the Sergei Skripal assassination, others will follow in their place.

This speaks to something: Russia's diplomatic presence in the U.K. is defined by its focus on espionage.

One indication of that is the news (or lack thereof).

Because while diplomats are supposed to be out and about representing their country and winning it new friends, few Russian diplomats in Britain seem to be interested in that agenda. When their diplomats do feature in the news, they are awarding medals to Britons who delivered aid to the Soviet Union during World War II.

Yes, some Russian diplomats in the U.K. retain a public face on Facebook and Twitter. Some, such as Nina Mishchenko, are even talented musicians. Nevertheless, it is striking the degree to which many of the 58 diplomats don’t make the news.

Striking, unless you consider that many of the 58 are making news behind the scenes and not simply out of the embassy in central London.

Check out this rather interesting Russian diplomatic facility in Hampstead Heath, North London, about a 30-minute drive from central London. Housing the Russian trade representative office (traditionally a front for Russian intelligence activity) and Russia's defense attaché (GRU) office, these snapshots from Google Maps (my annotations added) show that the facility has an unusual level of internal and external security coverage via remote cameras.

On paper, that might simply be standard diplomatic security procedure. But then again, note the same facility from an aerial view.

After all, why the trade office (building on right below) needs those large satellite receivers (annotated in red) is not clear. Also note that different satellite imagery (Google is the first image below and Bing the second) shows that the trade representative office's northernmost satellite was added recently.



From Hampstead Heath, with love.

Regardless, beyond these facilities, some Russian intelligence operations in the U.K. are more open.

The Russian government, for example, funds a range of fake news outlets and fake think-tanks across Britain (I'll have a piece on this coming out in the next few weeks). These organizations facilitate meetings with influencers who might be drawn towards advocacy for Kremlin interests and provide a funding front for Russian information agents.

But that's just one side to the relatively open Russian intelligence picture.

Russian diplomats also occasionally deliver debate-style speeches on otherwise fractious issues at top British universities like King’s College London and Durham University.

In April 2016, for example, diplomat Maxim Sizov visited Durham University and delivered a talk on Syria. Nothing wrong there, but for the fact that the Russians deploy their intelligence officers to high-quality campuses abroad in order to cultivate and recruit British and foreign target-nation ( Five Eyes, etc.) citizens who the Russians believe are interested in pursuing government careers in their home nations.

The drink receptions which follow such university events are a great place to make new friends and create new Kim Philby's.

Ultimately, all of this reflects one basic truth: Russian intelligence operations in Britain are deep and wide-ranging. And the 59-person diplomatic list only reflects those Russian intelligence officers acting under diplomatic cover. Other intelligence officers acting outside of diplomatic cover also abound.