Book launch cancelled after threat to ex-spy

By PAUL YANDALL and NZPA

The launch of the memoirs of a New Zealand-born former British spy has hit another snag, forcing its planned release last night to be aborted.

Richard Tomlinson's The Big Breach: From Top Secret to Maximum Security was to have gone on sale in Russia in defiance of court orders to prevent its publication elsewhere.

But the launch of the book was abandoned after Mr Tomlinson was advised that if he left Europe to launch it in Moscow he might not be able to return.

Narodny Variant, the company publishing the book, cancelled its planned book launch news conference in Moscow last night after Mr Tomlinson decided to stay away.

"Unfortunately, several legal advisers told him that he might not be able to return to any European country should he leaves his current country [Italy] for Moscow, even for a day," the company said.

The sale of the book had also been postponed for "a few days," the company said. Its publication has reportedly been organised by the Russian secret service.

Ngaruawahia-born Mr Tomlinson, a former MI6 officer, was reported to have been paid £28,000 ($93,000) for the memoirs.

The release was to have gone ahead despite Mr Tomlinson being paid £60,000 by the British Government in 1997 not to talk about his intelligence work and court orders in New Zealand, Australia, Britain and other countries preventing the book's publication.

Mr Tomlinson, aged 38, told the Sunday Telegraph in London that his memoirs breached his confidentiality deal with his former employers, MI6.

He also confirmed that he would receive a cut from future sales in addition to the £28,000 advance paid by Moscow publisher Sergei Korovin, whom MI6 says is a frontman for Russian intelligence.

Mr Tomlinson said he had agreed to the deal to remain silent in 1997 because he needed money to pay off debts.

He claimed it involved a £15,000 loan, which he has yet to repay, but intelligence officials said the payment was four times higher.

"They broke their promises to me so I don't feel I should be party to the agreement," Mr Tomlinson told the Telegraph.

His book gives details of MI6's "tradecraft" and his undercover work during four years with the agency.

He served six months in jail for breaking the Official Secrets Act when he tried to find a publisher in 1997.

MI6 told the High Court in London last Friday that Mr Korovin travelled to America and Switzerland using the name of Kirill Chashchin, deployed professional counter-surveillance techniques during the trips and was "acting on behalf of a Russian intelligence agency."

Mr Tomlinson said Mr Korovin had no links to Russian intelligence. He said the publisher had sought him out and for a year their only contact was by e-mail.

"I'm sure the intelligence services in Moscow have read the book by now," he said.

"I don't think there's anything in it that is news to them. I think they'd regard it as absolute drivel."

However, he admitted the book contained references to real officers and operations, though he said he would identify individuals only by nicknames.

"The operations in the book are very close to the truth, but I have combined a number of them to disguise the specific details."