Pablo Miller

{{short description|British diplomat}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Pablo Miller''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|OBE}} (born 1960)<ref name="thedailybeast" /><ref name="ee">{{Cite web|url=https://www.president.ee/en/estonia/decorations/bearer/4144/pablo-miller|title=Estonian State Decorations|accessdate=2019-11-19}}</ref> is a British former intelligence officer with the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), a former British diplomat and soldier who was first secretary of the British embassy in Estonia from 1997.<ref name="thedailybeast">{{cite news|first1=Adam|last1=Rawnsley|accessdate=2019-10-22|title=Pablo Miller: The Mystery Man Who 'Recruited' Putin's Poisoned Spy|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/pablo-miller-the-mystery-man-who-recruited-putins-poisoned-spy|date=16 March 2018|via=www.thedailybeast.com}}</ref>

Miller was an officer in the Royal Tank Regiment together with Mark Urban, who also lived in Salisbury and he was a member of the Royal Green Jackets in the British army.<ref name="thedailybeast"/> He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1990.<ref name="thedailybeast"/> He worked in Nigeria before moving to Estonia.<ref name="thedailybeast"/>

Russian intelligence claimed that Miller was a senior officer in British intelligence while working undercover as a first secretary of the British embassy in Tallinn, Estonia. The MI6 officer under diplomatic cover in Moscow at this time was Christopher Steele. While working at the British embassy, Miller recruited the former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal to work for the British as a double-agent.<ref name="thedailybeast"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/mar/25/russia.iantraynor1|title=British diplomat accused in spy row|first=Ian|last=Traynor|work=The Guardian |date=March 25, 2000|via=www.theguardian.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Nathan Hodge, Sebastian Shukla, Carol Jordan and Mary Ilyushina|accessdate=2019-10-22|title=Hospitalized Russian spy linked to Russia-UK spy wars|url=https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/08/world/sergei-skripal-spy-war/index.html|website=CNN|date=8 March 2018 }}</ref> He had to retire from the diplomatic corp after Moscow twice named him as an MI6 officer who was recruiting double-agents to betray the Kremlin.

Miller worked for former MI6 Christopher Steele's London-based private intelligence firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, which produced the Steele dossier that later imploded as the so-called Russiagate inquiry.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Mendick |first1=Robert |last2=Dixon |first2=Hayley |last3=Sawer |first3=Patrick |last4=Heighton |first4=Luke |title=Poisoned Russian spy Sergei Skripal was close to consultant who was linked to the Trump dossier |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/07/poisoned-russian-spy-sergei-skripal-close-consultant-linked/ |access-date=9 November 2021 |work=The Telegraph |date=7 March 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Richardson |first1=William J |title=The UK government issued a media censorship order over Skripal poisoning links to Trump-Russia dossier |url=https://evolvepolitics.com/the-uk-government-issued-a-media-censorship-order-over-skripal-poisoning-links-to-trump-russia-dossier/ |website=Evolve Politics |access-date=9 November 2021 |date=9 May 2018}}</ref>

In 2018, the British government issued two DSMA-Notices after the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in March 2018 with a Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury. The notices instructed the British media not to report that Pablo Miller, then a retired MI6 agent, had recruited Sergei Skripal to MI6.<ref>{{cite web |last1=West |first1=Diana |title=Big Dots — Do They Connect? Steele and Skripal Revisited |url=https://spectator.org/big-dots-do-they-connect-steele-and-skripal-revisited/ |website=The American Spectator|access-date=9 November 2021 |language=en |date=28 June 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Miller |first1=David |title=Revealed: rebranded D-Notice committee issued two notices over Skripal affair |url=https://spinwatch.org/index.php/issues/propaganda/item/5998-two-d-notices-for-skripal-affair |website=Spinwatch |access-date=9 November 2021 |language=en-gb |date=8 May 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/05/21/skri-m21.html|title=Sergei Skripal discharged from hospital|website=World Socialist Web Site|date=21 May 2018 }}</ref> As MI6 agent Miller was also known as ″Antonio Alvarez de Hidalgo″.<ref>[https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/795751 Налоговый полицейский узнал своего вербовщика: Он оказался старым знакомым контрразведчиков ФСБ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180308165142/https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/795751 |date=8 March 2018 }} tr. ''The tax police recognized his recruiter: He turned out to be an old acquaintance of the FSB counterintelligence'' Kommersant, 16 August 2007.</ref> According to the FSB, Pablo Miller was also in contact with Alexander Litvinenko.<ref>[https://lenta.ru/articles/2007/08/15/spy/ Шпион-идальго: ФСБ назвала имя британского шпиона, вербовавшего российских силовиков] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080106203504/http://lenta.ru/articles/2007/08/15/spy/ |date=6 January 2008 }} Lenta.ru, 15 August 2007.</ref>

After the Amesbury Novichok nerve agent poisonings in June 2018, Urban reported that he was working with Sergei Skripal up to a year before the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury.<ref>Mark Urban: [https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-44717835 ''Salisbury poisoning: Skripals 'were under Russian surveillance''], BBC, 4 July 2018</ref>

== Awards == In 2002 he was given the Order of the White Star, 3rd Class by the President of Estonia Arnold Rüütel.<ref name="ee" /> He was appointed to the Order of the British Empire in 2015 for service to British foreign policy.<ref name="thedailybeast"/><ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2019-10-22|title=Pablo Miller|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2348527|website=www.thegazette.co.uk}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|agency=Press Association|accessdate=2019-10-22|title=Queen's birthday honours list 2015: Diplomatic|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/12/queens-birthday-honours-list-2015-diplomatic|newspaper=The Guardian|date=12 June 2015|issn=0261-3077|via=www.theguardian.com}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Pablo}} Category:British diplomats Category:Living people Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 3rd Class Category:1960 births Category:MI6 personnel