THE actress Vanessa Redgrave has been targeted by demonstrators in the pay of a militant group linked to the successors of the KGB and to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.

Hundreds of demonstrators from the group have mounted a picket near Redgrave’s home in west London, targeting her because of her support for a Chechen exile in Britain.

Marching Together, the organisation, is pressing for Akhmed Zakayev, who has been granted asylum in this country, to be sent to Moscow. It advertises to young Russian immigrants to take part in its demonstrations in London and pays a £15 attendance fee.

Based in Moscow, Marching Together is run by a former aide to Putin and there has been criticism that some of its members are close to the FSB, formerly the internal security arm of the KGB.

The marchers have taken part in at least six demonstrations, including the picket near Redgrave’s home in Chiswick two weeks ago and a meeting in Trafalgar Square in October. Redgrave said this weekend that she believed the demonstration and an attempt the night afterwards to smash the door to her block of flats may have been connected.

During the Trafalgar Square demo, demonstrators held up placards with slogans such as “Merry Xmas, Mr Zakayev, stop your bloody business” and “Zakayev get out of the UK”.

Another read: “They live next door to us”. The demonstrators also waved pictures of Redgrave, Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden as well as the Chechen rebels.

Redgrave has sought advice on personal protection from anti-terrorist police and has asked for closed-circuit television to be installed.

“This is the first time they have mentioned me publicly,” she said. “Why they have raised my profile is precisely because I work with Mr Zakayev and Russian human rights activists. It is very worrying both for him and for myself and I don’t think the KGB will stop at anything.”

Other figures in Britain who have been targeted by the demonstrations include Boris Berezovsky, the exiled Russian oligarch, and the radical preachers Abu Hamza and Omar Bakri Mohammed, leader of the al-Muhajiroun organisation.

Marching Together denies it has any presence in London. But one source who has attended meetings with the demonstration organisers said they openly talked about their membership of the group.

The source said the leading organisers had arrived in Britain in the past few months and had a large budget to pay UK-based Russians to whip up protests against Chechen figures.

“Most of the activists in recent demonstrations were paid £15 in cash to take part after they had responded to advertisements in a London-based Russian newspaper offering to pay people for giving out leaflets,” the source said.

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