Overview

• Blaise Metreweli is set to assume MI6 leadership this autumn as its first female chief.
• A Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office spokesman has declared that she never knew or met her paternal grandfather, Constantine Dobrowolski.
• German federal archives show Dobrowolski defected from the Red Army to serve as a Nazi informant known as ‘Agent No 30’ and boasted of exterminating Jews.
• Security experts praised the early domestic disclosure but warned that Russian propagandists are likely to exploit the Nazi espionage revelations.
• Officials credit Metreweli’s complex Eastern European roots with driving her mission to prevent conflict and protect the British public from modern threats.