UK man charged with assisting Russian military spies in sabotage plot

A British man has been charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service after alleged contact with Russian military spies, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.The charges against Joshua Cammidge, 31, came on Wednesday following his arrest last week by counterterrorism police.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Kremlin adviser warns UK drone factories could face attackslist 2 of 3UK to back Ukraine with missile blueprints amid Russia-Ukraine strikeslist 3 of 3Russia warns it could target UK in response to Kyiv firing British missilesend of listHe allegedly received instructions from a suspected representative of the GRU Volunteer Corps, a group controlled by Russia’s military intelligence agency, with the intent to commit an act of sabotage.Cammidge is set to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on Thursday.Frank Ferguson, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said: “Prosecutors have worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring the case to court and that it is in the public interest to pursue criminal proceedings.”Metropolitan Police said the British national was arrested by London Counter Terrorism and Wiltshire Police officers at an address on Friday in Swindon, a town in southwest England.He was then taken to a London police station while officers conducted searches of a different Swindon address. The following day, he was further detained under the United Kingdom’s National Security Act.GRU Volunteer CorpsThe United Kingdom deemed the GRU Volunteer Corps a national security threat in July for collecting foreign intelligence and conducting hostile covert operations on behalf of Russian military spies.Support for the GRU was banned under a new law intended to give the government more powers to tackle proxy organisations carrying out hostile activity on behalf of foreign states. Supporters convicted of assisting the group face up to 14 years in prison.