former Russian frogman: "I killed (famed Naval Commander, MI6 spy) Buster Crabb" in 1956
"One of the great mysteries of the Cold War may finally have been solved with the claim by a former Russian frogman that he killed British spy Lionel "Buster" Crabb.
The death of the 47-year-old Naval commander - the inspiration for Ian Fleming's James Bond - as he spied on a warship carrying Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev 51 years ago has been repeatedly covered up by British authorities.
More..But now, in a story that could have come straight from the pages of a 007 thriller, retired Russian sailor Eduard Koltsov says he cut the Briton's throat as he apparently placed an underwater mine on the vessel in Portsmouth Harbour.
The incident, in April 1956, caused a major diplomatic row - with the Russians accusing the British of a bungled attempt to spy on their warship. Crabb's headless body was found several months later.
Mr Kolstov, who was 23 at the time, said that he was ordered to investigate suspicious activity around the cruiser Ordzhonikidze, which had brought President Khrushchev and Prime Minister Bulganin for meetings with the British Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden and his ministers.
Speaking to a Russian documentary team, Mr Koltsov said he slipped into the water of Portsmouth Harbour, where the Ordzhonikidze was at anchor, and made out the shape of an "enemy" in the water.
"I saw a silhouette of a diver in a light frogman suit who was fiddling with something at the starboard, next to the ship's ammunition stores," Mr Koltsov added. "I swam closer and saw that he was fixing a mine."
He showed the documentary team the dagger he claims he used to kill the Englishman, and the Red Star medal he was later secretly awarded for his bravery.
Mr Kolstov, 74, said he was telling the story after 51 years because he wants the mystery solved before he died.
Last year, in a letter to a newspaper, Mr Kolstov told how he had been part of a group of combat-divers known as Barracuda who had been sent into the water after suspicious activity around the ship.
He did not say in the letter who killed Crabb, but provided a graphic detailed description of how the killer had dived beneath Crabb, grabbed his feet, dragged him down and cut his air supply before slashing his throat.
The body was allowed to float away with the tide, he said in the letter.
Crabb is believed actually to have been positioning a listening device, not a mine. Yesterday his remaining family reacted with amazement to the claim, while officials in Moscow and London remained silent.
Relative Lomond Handley, 61, said: "I find it hard to believe that any Soviet divers or sailors would have committed murder of a British sailor in our waters. I simply don't believe it.
"And for any of Her Majesty's Navy to endanger a visiting ship would have been unthinkable. An explosion would have embarrassed our government and destroyed the relationship between the British and the Soviet Union which our government was trying to build up.
"It's possible that Crabb may have gone down to see whether there were mines and it would have been his duty to get rid of them." Miss Handley's mother Eileen was a distant cousin of Crabb and was brought up with him.
She spent her life trying to find out what happened to the commander, but "came up against brick walls", said Miss Handley, from Poole, Dorset.
"The Government told lie after lie - successive governments too, not only the government of the day," Miss Handley said. "No government has ever come out with the truth. It just shows that governments cannot be trusted."
Crabb was a decorated war hero and had links with the intelligence services. He had won the George Medal for his work as a frogman specialising in removing German limpet mines from British warships in Malta, and an OBE for mine clearance at Livorno, Italy.
On April 17, 1956, he checked into a hotel in Portsmouth with a Mr Smith - believed to have been a MI6 naval liaison officer.
They went out early on April 19 and Crabb was never seen again. Smith returned, paid the bills, collected their belongings and vanished.
Admiralty officials concocted a story that Crabb disappeared while testing secret diving equipment three miles from where the Soviet ship was at anchor.
The cover-up prompted wild speculation for years, including claims that Crabb was alive and well and living in Russia as an officer in the Red Navy, and others that he was killed by the Soviets.
Secret documents relating to the controversy were released to the public last year.
They reveal the determination of officials to cover up what really happened, even rejecting a request for maintenance from his ex-wife Margaret Crabb.
Prime Minister Eden told the House of Commons that it would 'not be in the public interest' to disclose the circumstances of Crabb's death.
He added that "what was done was done without the authority or knowledge of Her Majesty's ministers".
In fact, Eden was furious - he had specifically instructed no spying missions be undertaken during the sensitive Russian visit but was disobeyed.
The Ministry of Defence declined to comment.
(Daily Mail, Nov.16, 2007)
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