Russia 'sought access to UK visa issuing system'

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A Russian IT specialist claims that he was asked by the Russian Security Service to provide back door access to the system issuing visas for Russians to travel to Britain.

The individual is currently seeking asylum in the United States.

He spoke initially to the Bellingcat investigative website who investigated his claim and published a report today.

The BBC has also spoken directly to the individual who has asked not be named to protect his safety.

While it is impossible to verify many of the details, experts say his story is consistent with activity by the Russian security services.

It is unclear if it is linked directly to the travel of Russian intelligence operatives to Salisbury this March when Sergei Skripal was poisoned.

The man - known as "Vadim", which is not his real name - worked for TLScontact, a company which provides IT services to consulates for visa applications. In the case of the British operation in Russia, it processes and transmits data to London where final decisions on visas are made.

While working for the company in China, Vadim got married and when he was posted back to Moscow in late 2015 he encountered problems in getting his family back with him.

He believes that along with the harassment of other members of his family in Russia, this was part of a ploy by the Russian Security Service - the FSB - to try to get him to collaborate with them.

In April 2016 he said he was approached by someone who offered to make the problems go away. He was asked to co-operate with the FSB and signed a document indicating that. He says the individual said they wanted information on the operations and IT network of TLScontact including a "network map".