The latest 'scandal' broached by the Torygraph in UK

Russian spy: colleagues raised concerns over Mike Hancock's 'assistants'

A number of colleagues of Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock have said they raised concerns about his sympathies with Russia and his string of assistants from former Soviet states before one was accused of espionage.

Blonde researcher remembered for short skirts

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Suspected Russian spy detained

By Nick Collins 8:08AM GMT 06 Dec 2010

The MP for Portsmouth South, 64, launched a defence of his 25-year-old assistant, Katia Zatuliveter, after she was issued a deportation order over her alleged links to Russian intelligence services.

But British and European MPs close to Mr Hammond had previously warned about his conduct after becoming suspicious of the activities of his young employees.

Chris Bryant, Labour's former Europe Minister, said he moved to replace Hancock at the head of the cross-party Russian group because of his "pro-Putin and pro-Medvedev position".

He told The Guardian: "The combination of being on the delegation to the Western European Union, the Council of Europe, his membership of the commons defence select committee and his position as a Portsmouth MP: you can see how he was attractive."

Mr Bryant claimed Zatuliveter – who acted as a secretary for the group – walked out in fury following the vote which saw Mr Hancock replaced as chairman.

He said: "I couldn't understand why an MP from somewhere in the south-west had a Russian researcher. She was only really interested in doing Russia stuff. She seemed slightly odd."

Colleagues at the EU Council for Europe, where Mr Hancock also worked, claimed they too had voiced their concerns about Mr Hancock's series of identikit companions from former Soviet states.

Mátyás Eörsi, a Hungarian MP and ex-leader of the council's liberal group – which includes the Lib Dems – said the women were "all the same type: long-legged, good-looking blondes, never older than 25, fluent in French, English and often German, and with a higher education".

He claimed he had warned Charles Kennedy, the former Lib Dem leader, about a potential "scandal" over his MP's voting record, which was heavily weighted in favour of Moscow.

He added: "Hancock was surrounded by very young, very beautiful, very attractive Russian and Ukranian girls. I don't exclude that these girls had a double mandate."

Members of the liberal group said Mr Hancock frequently brought young eastern European women to informal business dinners at which other delegates arrived alone.

A Ukranian MP said he had "openly protested" about the women's presence at one meeting of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (Alde), where private discussions were taking place.

Serhiy Holovaty said: "My demand was to put a ban on the exceptional "right" of Mike to bring every time to our meetings a new person of this type," adding that he suspected they were "connected" to the FSB, Russia's spy network.

Mr Hancock said he had taken young women to dinners with Alde members about six times in a 13-year period, adding: "They certainly weren't assistants of mine. They were people doing internships at the Council of Europe, or something like that."

He denied claims by Mr Eörsi that he had failed to declare all of his visits to Russia, but said he did not know exactly how many trips he had made because his passport fell into the sea.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8183312/Russian-spy-colleagues-raised-concerns-over-Mike-Hancocks-assistants.html

There's a video as well on the article, but I can't open it or copy it.

Note that this girl is only the latest in a string of good-looking East European blondes that he has employed in his various parliamentary/EU roles. And until now he's got away with it.

In fact he's still getting away with it, unless someone feels his collar.

Or the people of Pompey stop worrying about their football team and concentrate on their MP.

Note further this Labour guy commenting on Portsmouth as being "... somewhere in the South-West ..."

Shows what he knows about England, dunnit?

I would possibly accept South-East, but just South would be fine.

To me South-West starts somewhere after Poole Harbour.

I thought Poole Harbour was in Hawaii, they made a film about Ben Affleck there.

I thought Poole Harbour was in Hawaii, they made a film about Ben Affleck there.

Poole Harbour is in Dorset, one of the prettiest of England's counties.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poole_Harbour

There are several islands within the bay/harbour, on one of which, around the turn of the nineteenth century, an elder man took several young lads on a camping trip, unescorted by any social workers.

These days he would be locked up within minutes, but in those balmy days he was able to found the Boy Scouts movement (and give salacious opportunities to countless other scout-masters for many decades).

Who's Ben Affleck?

I was being a tad facetious HB. As a west country boy myself I have been to Poole.

Ben Affleck is an actor, he starred in one well known movie named Pearl Harbour.

I thought Poole Harbour was in Hawaii, they made a film about Ben Affleck there.

u cunny funt

I was being a tad facetious HB. As a west country boy myself I have been to Poole.

Ben Affleck is an actor, he starred in one well known movie named Pearl Harbour.

Yes, the movie is well known.

Who's Ben Affleck?

Seems from your post that that was the extent of his career.

Here in Vietnam we have hundreds of well-known actors. All have the name Nguyen Van *****. As does everyone else in VN. On my project the entire management team of the EPC contractor has the family name Nguyen (pronounced M'we'en or similar). Yet they're only related in their need for an income greater than their salaries. Life ain't easy.