British police had for “months” been working on the case of a UK national accused of spying for Russia in Germany, Metropolitan Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has said.

       The suspect, named as 57-year-old David Smith, had been working at the British embassy in Berlin.

       He is alleged to have passed on sensitive documents to Russia in return for cash and was arrested by German authorities on Wednesday.

       “We have been involved for a number of months in the Met,” Dame Cressida told LBC radio.

       “I think it's a very good example of international co-working. We will continue to work closely with them and through the next steps.”

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       Mr Smith appeared in court in Germany on Wednesday following his arrest in a joint operation by the German and British authorities, including the security service MI5.

       Officially he has been identified only as David S, in line with Germany’s strict privacy laws

       He is currently being held under German counter-espionage laws on suspicion of “intelligence agent activity”.

       Prosecutors said he was suspected of working for Russian intelligence since at least November 2020.

       He is alleged to have exchanged documents for money on at least one occasion, prosecutors said.

       There has been no suggestion so far that the British authorities will seek to extradite him to stand trial in the UK.

       Dame Cressida, head of Scotland Yard, said that if charges are brought, the Met stands ready to support any criminal proceedings, “wherever that may be”.

       She added: “At the moment the Germans are most certainly handling it.”

       The case has led to calls from MPs for a review of the security arrangements for contractors working at UK embassies, amid fears that sensitive counter-terrorism operations may have been compromised.

       The former national security adviser Lord Ricketts said the suspect was unlikely to have had access to highly classified information.

       However, he said the case served as a reminder that the Russians continued to deploy traditional espionage methods to prise secrets from their rivals.

       “We all think now about the Russians stealing secrets by hacking and providing disinformation by social media and so on – it is a reminder that the Russians haven’t given up also on the old-fashioned ways of suborning individuals through money," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

       He added: “I think the Russian intelligence threat to all our countries has grown again.

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       “It probably dipped at the end of the Cold War but it is absolutely back in all our countries, and so vigilance is essential, not only in these new areas but also in the old-fashioned areas of good physical security around embassies and ensuring loyalty in staff.”

       Additional reporting by Press Association