China and Russia have decoded intelligence secrets contained in the cache of documents held by the whistleblower Edward Snowden, leading to British spies being recalled from dangerous postings, according to government officials.
Whitehall aides said operatives have had to be moved after Moscow gained access to more than 1m intelligence documents held by Mr Snowden, who fled to Russia after leaking some of those documents to the Guardian newspaper. They added that Beijing had also cracked the encrypted documents.
Officials said moving agents had prevented the UK obtaining important information, although they added that nobody had been harmed by the security breach.