Russians stick to home-grown workers

Michael Evans, Whitehall Correspondent
3 November 1986
The Times
As the American diplomats in Moscow continue to struggle with life on their own without their 260 Russian mechanics, cooks and bottle washers, the Russians in London remain confident that if ever their locally employed British staff were withdrawn in a diplomatic brouhaha, they would not have to start scrubbing floors and cooking bortsch.  For security and financial reasons, the Soviet Embassy in Kensington employs few British locals. The occasional driver is hired - to make sure they do not lose their way when driving into the country for fresh air - or the odd window cleaner but otherwise the menial staff are strictly home-grown.

Diplomatic sources point out that if the Russians helped to chip away at Britain's unemployment figures, by taking on dozens of British secretaries, cleaners and telephone operators, they would have to pay the going rate in hard currency, which is infinitely more expensive than giving rouble-style wages to the girls flown in from Moscow.  Security is another matter. It is one thing to have the British authorities tapping your phones and following your cars round London, but quite another to run the risk of paying British employees to spy on you.The Russians had a scare several years ago that they have never forgotten when they engaged a double-glazing firm to put in some new windows at their trade delegation building in Highgate, north London.  

One of the double-glazers, an Irishman, claimed that he had been persuaded by MI6 to spy on the Russians while he innocently installed the windows. He also said he had placed bugs inside the window frames.  The Irishman claimed to have discovered a number of Russians who were subsequently expelled from Britain for espionage.


A Foreign Office official said: 'Neither the Soviets nor the other Eastern bloc countries employ many British. They import their own cooks and cleaners. '  This compares noticeably with other embassies and high commissions who are only too happy to take on British local staff. The biggest employers are the Americans, Canadians, Australians, French and West Germans.  Meanwhile back in Moscow, the American envoys who have been without any Russian staff for a week, after the withdrawal of their labour during the tit-for-tat spy upheaval between the Soviet Union and the United States, are fast becoming experts in car maintenance and washing up.