Captain Anatoliy Pavlovich Zotov was a naval attaché to the Soviet Embassy in London who was expelled in December 1982 for conduct unbecoming a diplomat. At the time, it was the highest-ranking and most significant expulsion of Soviet Union officials from the UK since 1971 when 100 general Soviet personnel were expelled upon charges of spying. Zotov was expelled after being accused of attempting to set up a network of agents to gather information about weapons systems and electronic hardware used by the Royal Navy during the Falklands War.
The plot
Zotov and the Soviet air attaché Serge Smirnov, followed by Special Branch and MI5,
- Hugh Hambleton: Canadian-British economist, spy, and double-agent, working in service of the Soviet Union in the same period.