The claim has emerged in the wake of the most elaborate spy swap since the Cold War, which saw 10 Moscow-controlled sleeper agents traded for four Russians spying for the West.

One of the 10 includes flame-haired beauty Anna Chapman, the 28-year-old daughter of a KGB agent.

She was last night ­seeking to be returned to the UK, where she lived for seven years before moving to the United States.

Russia’s latest claims emerged four days ago, as the arrest of the spies by the FBI was revealed to the world.

Speaking on state-controlled Russia Today news channel earlier this week, investigative journalist Daniel Estulin said: “In the 1990s Operation Barbarossa 2 used NGOs and the International Monetary Fund to try to infiltrate and destroy ­Russia society from within.

“Putin proved to be an apt negotiator and he has out negotiated both the Americans and the Europeans, but what we are seeing right now, in geopolitical terms, is that they’re still at it.

“As part of Barbarossa 3, the US Government is building 13 secret bases in Afghanistan as part of a forward push towards the eventual war against Russia because that war is simply ­unavoidable.”

Operation Barbarossa was the codename given to Adolf Hitler’s failed attempt to conquer Russia in 1941.

Asked about the credibility of his information, Russian-born Mr Estulin added: “The Russian government is one of my key sources.” America’s Department of Defense refused to comment on the claim. But one US ­military source said: “If it’s true that this is what the Russian government believes, it’s the kind of nonsense we have come to expect from Russia.”

Other military experts stated that, on purely logistical terms, the US would choose to build bases in countries with a less hostile geography.

Last night Dr Jonathan Eyal, Director of International Security Studies with the Royal United Services Institute, said notions like this were further examples of Russian paranoia.

“Russia has always had an inferiority complex, even under Tsar Nicholas ll. It’s been 20 years since the demise of the Soviet Union and the country is as insular as it ever was.

“The country is still ruled by a bureaucracy that was conditioned during the Soviet Union, where military chiefs and the intelligence services need to constantly reinforce their own positions.”

Examples of Russia’s muscle-flexing include turning off its natural gas pipelines to influence neighbouring countries such as Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus and sending spy planes and ships into British territorial skies and waters.

Russia carried out at least 20 air sorties into British air space in the last year alone.

Tensions with the UK have also grown since London became the city of choice for billionaire ­oligarchs, Dr Eyal said: “For Russia, it is part of some plot to lure the country’s wealthiest ­citizens away.” Relations worsened in 2006 with the assassination of ­Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who died after ­Russian agents poisoned him in London with polonium-210.

But Dr Eyal said that the recent spy swap is the greatest example of its paranoia.

He said: “The problem is that it is hopelessly out of touch, and trusts no one. This is its undoing. The ­biggest irony about this recent spy swap is that the level of so-called intelligence gathered by the Russian agents in the US is no more than any ­citizen can gain by trawling the internet. The problem is that in ­Russia, if it is in print, it is assumed to be state sponsored and therefore probably untrue, and they apply those standards to the rest of the world.”

Yesterday it emerged US President Barack Obama had known about the spy-scandal for two weeks before the arrests.

He was forced to green-light the arrests after Chapman was tipped off her cover was blown.

She had been living a double life as an estate agent, had been emailing a report to Russia every Wednesday from a Starbucks café. Last night, officials in the UK were probing ways to legally bar her after she announced her intention to move back to Britain. She has British citizenship after marrying Englishman Alex Chapman in 2003.

Chapman and the other nine flew back to Russia ­yesterday.

Dr Eyal added: “This entire episode has been an embarrassment for Russia.

“Not only did they receive no real intelligence from these so-called spies, but Russia has so few assets that it was forced to hand over quite important assets to secure their return.”

Express.co.uk

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