Chris Steele's friends describe a 007 figure but MI6 call him 'an idiot' (original) (raw)

The ex-MI6 spy behind the 'dodgy' Donald Trump dossier has today been compared to James Bond by friends but branded an 'idiot' by his former secret service masters.

The 'showy' former British agent's reputation as the UK's top operative in Russia meant that he was even introduced as a real-life 007.

Steele, who like Bond studied at Cambridge University, has packed up his bags and fled his £1.5million Surrey mansion 'fearing for his life' and Russian reprisals over his 'dirty' Donald Trump dossier.

Intelligence expert Nigel West says his friend is like Ian Fleming's most famous character - and revealed he has a deep dislike of Putin and his Kremlin for ignoring accepted rules of espionage.

He said: 'He's James Bond. I actually introduced him to my wife as James Bond'.

Scroll down for video

Life imitating art: Chris Steele, 52, the ex-MI6 spy behind the 'dodgy' Donald Trump dossier (believed to be pictured with his second wife Katherine in 2015) has today been compared to James Bond by friends

Steele, 52, who studied at Cambridge like Bond, is circled here in 1985 with, among others, DJ Paul Gambaccini (second from right, front row) and That's Life star Chris Seale (front row, centre left),

He told NBC news: 'He feels very strongly that the Putin Kremlin tore up the rule book and the convention by which intelligence agencies do not attack each other's personnel.

Intelligence expert Nigel West says his friend is like Bond and even introduced him to his wife like that

'He also feels passionately about what you'd call the Kremlin kleptocracy. He doesn't believe there is a business deal in the past 10 years that has been legit'.

Steele has been described as 'reliable, meticulous and well-informed' by former colleagues but another told The Times he is 'more showy and less grounded in reality than you might expect a former SIS person to be'.

And a former university contemporary has described him as an unlikely spy, telling MailOnline: 'Chris Steele was the last person I would have thought would be taken on by MI6.'

The former Cambridge student- who attended at the same time as Steele - continued: 'He was very left wing in his university days, but that wasn’t the worst of it.

'He was completely charmless. I have never heard of a spy who was not charming.

'However he was very ambitious, ruthless and frankly not a very nice guy.

'In fact I would go as far as to say he was a sneaky, snivelling little creep, who was universally untrusted.'

Some experts believe that Steele fell into a Kremlin trap and was fed false information about Trump and extraordinary claims he was filmed paying prostitutes to do a 'golden shower' sex game on a presidential suite bed once slept on by Barack Obama.

Mr Trump has again lashed out over the affair, calling Steele a 'failed spy' employed by 'sleazebag political operatives' and suggesting he wants to sue the ex-MI6 agent if he ever comes out of hiding.

He tweeted: 'It now turns out that the phony allegations against me were put together by my political opponents and a failed spy afraid of being sued'.

The scandal appears to have caused a major rift with MI6 too, whose angry bosses believe he is an 'idiot' for taking on the work.

Current MI6 boss Sir Alex Younger is said to be livid that Steele agreed to take on the work and has caused worldwide embarrassment to British secret services.

One senior intelligence source called him 'an idiot' and told The Sun: 'Chris should never have accepted this bit of work.

'It was always going to come out at some stage, as was his involvement with it, and that is deeply embarrassing to the service.'

Current MI6 boss Sir Alex Younger, pictured, is said to be livid that Steele agreed to take on the work and has caused worldwide embarrassment to British secret services.

Donald Trump has again lashed out over the affair and tweeted: 'It now turns out that the phony allegations against me were put together by my political opponents and a failed spy afraid of being sued'.

Mr Steele’s Cold War-style vanishing act reflects a career sparring with the KGB and its successor the FSB.

The 52-year-old is hoping to return to anonymity after fleeing his £1.5million home in Surrey, telling his neighbour to look after his three cats.

Russia's relations with Britain went into the deep freeze last night as Moscow blamed MI6 for the dossier of sordid claims about Donald Trump.

Dossier of unverifiable sleaze

Lurid sex claims

The report states that in 2013 Trump hired prostitutes to urinate on the bed of the Presidential Suite at the Moscow Ritz Carlton, where he knew Barack and Michelle Obama had previously stayed.

It says: 'Trump's unorthodox behavior in Russia over the years had provided the authorities there with enough embarrassing material on the now Republican presidential candidate to be able to blackmail him if they so wished.'

Trump ridiculed the idea, pointing out that Russian hotel rooms are known to be rigged with cameras and describing himself as a 'germophobe'.

Property 'sweeteners'

The document states that Trump had declined 'sweetener' real estate deals in Russia that the Kremlin lined up in order to cultivate him.

The business proposals were said to be 'in relation to the ongoing 2018 World Cup soccer tournament'.

Russia 'cultivated' Trump for five years

The dossier claimed that the Russian regime had been 'cultivating, supporting and assisting Trump for at least five years'.

According to the document, one source even claimed that 'the Trump operation was both supported and directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin' with the aim being to 'sow discord'.

A dossier on Hillary Clinton

At one point the memo suggests Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov 'controlled' another dossier containing compromising material on Hillary Clinton compiled over 'many years'.

Elsewhere in the document, it is claimed that Putin was 'motivated by fear and hatred of Hillary Clinton.'

Peskov poured scorn on the claims today and said they were 'pulp fiction'.

Clandestine meetings

At one point the memo says there were reports of 'clandestine meetings' between Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen and Kremlin representatives in August last year in Prague.

However, Trump's counsel Michael Cohen today spoke out against allegations that he secretly met with Kremlin officials - saying that he had never been to Prague.

It has now emerged that the dossier was referring to a different person of the same name.

In an alarming Twitter post, the Russian embassy in London suggested Steele was still working for MI6 and ‘briefing both ways’ against Mr Trump and Moscow.

It came as American sources claimed that the UK Government gave the FBI permission to contact Mr Steele, who is in hiding after vanishing shortly before the damning dossier made headlines around the world.

Sir Andrew Wood, 77, believes its author Christopher Steele, 52, a former MI6 agent he knows from Moscow, is right to have vanished fearing for his life.

Sir Andrew said: 'I know him to be a very professional operator who left the secret service to operate his own company.

'I do not think he would make things up - but I do not think he would always draw the correct judgement'.

He joined MI6 after graduating from Cambridge University where he was described as a ‘confirmed socialist’.

As a young intelligence officer in Moscow, he was frequently harassed by the KGB – once even complaining they had stolen his wife Laura’s high-heeled shoes from their flat.

The couple faced down Russian tanks after the fall of the Soviet Union and ‘highly capable’ Mr Steele went on to become head of MI6’s Russia desk – meaning he was one of the Secret Intelligence Service’s most senior spies.

It was no wonder he was considered hot property when he quit MI6 in 2009 to set up his own spies-for-hire firm, Orbis Business Intelligence.

Co-founded with another former MI6 officer Christopher Burrows, it has earned £1million over the past two years and was instrumental in exposing corruption at world football body FIFA.

But it was Mr Steele’s gold-plated contacts in Moscow that led wealthy opponents of Mr Trump to the black door of Orbis’s discreet Belgravia office.

They commissioned him to research Mr Trump’s dealings in Russia.

The sensational results include claims the Kremlin keeps a blackmail file on the President-elect which is said to contain a video of Mr Trump with Moscow prostitutes who are engaging in a ‘sexually perverted’ act.

Yesterday a friend of Mr Steele described him as an experienced professional and not the sort to ‘simply pass on gossip’.

Mr Steele was born in 1964 in Aden – his father was in the military – and grew up in Surrey before attending Girton College, Cambridge, and becoming president of the Cambridge Union debating society in 1986 – the same year in which Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was president of the Oxford Union.

Though he was spying on the Russians, 26-year-old Mr Steele worked under diplomatic cover as Second Secretary (Chancery), working closely with Sir Tim Barrow – now our new ambassador to the EU – in the cramped old British Embassy across the Moskva River from the Kremlin.

Pictured: Mr Steele's £1.5million home in Surrey, bristles with CCTV cameras, which is still empty today

Spooks: The Russian embassy in London suggested Steele was still working for MI6 and ‘briefing both ways’ against Mr Trump and Moscow on Twitter - Sir Andrew suggested they were judging Steele by their own standards

After spending three years in the Russian capital, Mr Steele returned to the UK in 1993. The Steeles moved to South Norwood, South-East London, and had two sons, Matthew and Henry, before the couple were posted to Paris in 1998, where Mr Steele took the title First Secretary (Financial). Their daughter Georgina was born in France two years later.

Mr Steele was dubbed ‘Chris Whatsit’ by his late wife Laura (pictured) on their first date because she could not remember his name – but he revelled in being a man of mystery

While they were living in France, Laura began suffering bouts of illness, and the couple moved back to England in 2002, settling in Surrey. Around this time, Mr Steele’s work took him to Afghanistan, following the ousting of the Taliban following the 9/11 attacks on New York.

Sources said he was part of an MI6 team at Bagram Airbase briefing Special Forces on ‘kill or capture’ missions for high-value Taliban targets.

But Mr Steele’s interest and expertise in Russia did not diminish as he rose up the ranks.

He was a friend and contemporary of Alex Younger – now head of MI6. He moved back to London where he became head of MI6’s Russia desk.

When Alexander Litvinenko was assassinated in 2006, the then head of MI6, Sir John Scarlett turned to Mr Steele, who handled the case with ‘expert professionalism’.

But at home, events took a tragic turn. Beset with health problems, Laura died in September 2009, aged just 43, at Frimley Park Hospital of cirrhosis of the liver.

Mr Steele had decided to quit MI6 shortly before her death, and set up Orbis Business Intelligence with Mr Burrows. Company accounts signed off last month show it made £401,000 profit in 2015 and £621,000 profit in 2016.

The business thrived after Steele fed the FBI with information on corruption at FIFA.

He had been commissioned by the Football Association. US officials even met Mr Steele at his Belgravia office shortly before senior football officials were arrested over ‘rampant and systemic’ corruption and long-time president Sepp Blatter resigned.

It was the FIFA work which is said to have led to the lucrative deal to dig for dirt on Mr Trump’s dealings with Russia.

Mr Steele was an ideal choice. During his years in Moscow, he had established personal contacts with KGB, then FSB, operatives, some of whom went into the private sector in Russia’s equivalent of companies like Orbis.

Mr Steele would likely have subcontracted some of his Trump investigation to trusted intermediaries in Moscow.