The Lib Dem MP and the Russian spy who loved him

AN MP’s researcher suspected of being a Russian spy had a string of “honeytrap” affairs with senior diplomats, a deportation hearing was told yesterday.

Pretty Ekaterina Zatuliveter, 26, is said to have bedded a Dutch official and a European Nato worker in addition to turning her charms on Lib Dem backbencher Mike Hancock, 65.

She allegedly targeted the married MP and began a four-year affair with him to gain sensitive information after they met at a conference in St Petersburg in 2006.

Home Office lawyer Jonathan Glasson said Mr Hancock was known to have had a number of extra-marital affairs.

He told Miss Zatuliveter: “You knew that Mr Hancock’s private life might make him potentially vulnerable.”

She replied: “I did not know of his private life until our relationship.”

But Mr Glasson accused her of singling him out as “an influential man in the world of British politics and a member of the Defence Select Committee”.

He added: “You are lying when you repeatedly deny that you have worked for the Russian intelligence services.

“You have been reporting from the heart of British democracy.

“You have ensured that the Russian intelligence services have eyes and ears in the House of Commons.” Miss Zatuliveter is also said to have had sex with a Dutch diplomat, who quickly became suspicious of her. She allegedly had a fling with a Nato worker after her affair with Mr Hancock ended last year.

But she denies spying on the MP or any of her high-flying lovers. She told the Special Immigration Appeals Commission in London: “I am innocent and I should not be deported simply because someone has made a mistake.”

Miss Zatuliveter said she volunteered to be a chaperone at international conferences because she found it “interesting” and could improve her English.

She claims that she at first refused the MP’s advances and turned down his alleged offer of a CD and cash. It was revealed that in Autumn 2009 she was interviewed by MI5 because she was a Russian citizen working in Parliament.

She was finally arrested in August 2010 at Gatwick Airport and grilled by two British spies, who played “good cop, bad cop”, the hearing was told.

Mr Hancock, in his second spell as an MP for Portsmouth South after first being elected in 1984, has been married to wife Jacqui, a councillor in Portsmouth, for 43 years. They have a son and a daughter.

He did not attend the hearing yesterday and is not due to give evidence.

In a statement, handed out at his constituency office in Southsea, Hants, Mr Hancock did not refer to the claims of an affair. But he confirmed: “Miss Zatuliveter was an intern for me in 2006 and started working for me full time in 2008.

“On both occasions she was vetted by Commons authorities and given a pass.”

He added that she had no access to classified information. He said that he had asked MI5 several times if he should end her employment but they “re-assured me that it was not necessary”.

The hearing continues.

US/2012: new rules for political communication on Twitter?

Now that Twitter is wading into the world of political advertising, the Federal Election Commission may change the way they regulate those messages.

Tech President notes that the FEC is still trying to get their arms around the new platforms and mediums.

Part of the reasoning for a return to the rules, according to the draft document, is the advent of new technology. Twitter’s political ads, for instance, display a text box when users hover their cursors over a particular area; in that box is a more formal disclosure of who paid for the ad in question. The FEC hasn’t given a definite yes or no as to whether these new technologies are kosher, which leaves people trying to innovate in the multi-million-dollar field of political advertising in something of a gray area. New rules would change that.

“Given the development and proliferation of the Internet as a mode of political communication, and the expectation that continued technological advances will further enhance the quantity of information available to voters online and through other technological means,” reads the draft document, included in a memo to the commissioners from their general counsel, Anthony Herman, “the Commission welcomes comments on whether and how it should amend its disclaimer requirements for public communications on the Internet to provide flexibility consistent with their purpose.”

It’s not clear if the rules will change in time for the 2012 election.

Read more: Utah Pulse – New Rules for Online Political Ads Could be Coming