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A former Russian prime minster and prominent Putin rival has been apparently filmed in a sex sting with a British activist.

Mikhail Kasyanov , 58, can be seen with scantily-clad Natalya Pelevine, 39, in the grainy bedroom footage at a Moscow apartment, it's alleged.

The release by Kremlin -friendly television channel NTV is apparently aimed at destroying one of the few opposition leaders seen as remotely capable of being an alternative president to strongman Putin.

But it also attacks and humiliates a UK citizen who has been a constant critic of the Russian leadership, especially over its actions in Chechnya and lack of democracy, but who is also seen as a key link between Putin foes inside Russia and prominent figures in the West .

The pair were filmed naked or scantily clad, their faces fully visible.

(Image: NTV) (Image: NTV)

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Married Kasyanov was shown with his secret lover - an activist in his RPR Parnas party who also had a role as his aide - with partially-pixelated scenes of nudity and intimacy.

The black and while footage did not show explicit sex acts.

It appeared to have been filmed by a hidden camera in a dressing table in the bedroom of a Moscow flat apparently used for covert liaisons between the couple.

Who was behind the filming is unclear, but the purpose was evidently to embarrass the opposition figures who are also heard savaging other so-called allies in an anti-Putin front ahead of upcoming elections.

Pelevine - also known as Natalya Pelevina - has been active in the Russian opposition for around a decade.

Soviet-born, her parents emigrated to Britain before the collapse of the USSR when she was a child.

The lurid NTV screening claimed she regularly travelled to the United States and was in contact with Senator John McCain and investment banker William Browder, who has become a leading Western critic of Putin's government.

(Image: NTV) (Image: NTV)

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Former presidential candidate McCain chairs the National Endowment for Democracy, which Russia has declared an undesirable organisation.

Browder was the employer of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer whose death in custody led to the USA imposing the Magnitsky sanctions against selected Russian officials.

Contracts were shown which claimed to show she was in their pay.

She was also said to have contacts with associates of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, now seeking the Democrat nomination for the US presidential election.

The film claimed she had been charged last month with a possession of a "spy pen" with a hidden camera for covert filming.

Kasyanov tells here he wants her "to get elected in this country" to bolster opposition forces in the Russian parliament so that "your star fully rises".

But the man who served Putin as prime minister from 2000 to 2004 is also heard voicing the view that Russia could be engulfed by "chaos", in which case he intended to get his wife Irina to safety abroad, he told his lover.

(Image: REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov) (Image: NTV)

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"I think this is the right decision - if chaos starts here with people murdering each other, one better leaves and take family and children," he said.

The British woman accuses Kasyanov's family of being greedy and apparently of stealing assets.

Kasyanov - who when in power was nicknamed "Misha 2 Per Cent" for his alleged cut in major deals, told her: "I buy for 5 kopeks (pence) and sell for 5 roubles."

He claimed he was doing the same as his oligarch friends but "they act on a different scale".

He grumbled: "I've got five flats and two house, and they have hundreds of hectares of land."

But he also showed himself riven with envy about charismatic opposition blogger and anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny.

In theory they are anti-Putin allies but Kasyanov made clear he was pre-occupied on "how to construct a front against Navalny, this is the main task and everything has to be organised around it".

(Image: EPA)

She accused 39 year old Navalny as being a "layabout who exploits results of other people's work".

The hatreds within the opposition show the extent of its fall since it brought massive numbers of people out into the streets several years ago.

There was no immediate comment from Kasyanov on the footage.

Pelevine was reported saying she would take legal action against NTV.

The 40 minute broadcast recalled another infamous sex tape from the chaotic years of crisis and calamity under former president Boris Yeltsin.

In 1999 prosecutor general Yuri Skuratov was pushed aside after being filmed in a Moscow flat with two prostitutes.

In the new case, viewers were told broadcast on 1 April, viewers were told: "A man resembling Mikhail Kasyanov, the leader of RPR Parnas, is meeting a woman resembling Parnas member Natalya Pelevina...... but "there is no doubt that it is Kasyanov and Pelevina".