The
documentary Putin, Russia and the West, which aired on the BBC the 19th of this
month, incorporates the admission by former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s chief
of staff, Jonathan Powell, that the seemingly farfetched Russian allegations
dating to 2006 of British use of a fake rock in a Moscow park for espionage,
were indeed true. Russian state television coverage six years ago purported to
exhibit four British operatives planting or recovering the already referred to
fake rock, and uncovered the advanced communications devices contained therein.
According to official Russian accounts, British agents and their Russian
contacts relied on pocket-sized computers to download information to and from
an apparatus concealed in the plastic boulder as they went by it, a method
effective at 65 feet away at most and requiring solely one to two seconds. Tony
Blair, prime minister at the time the Russian charges regarding the fake rock
were first made, refused to respond, with the British government referring to
the established practice against discourse on intelligence matters. Mr. Blair’s
then Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, did not follow the
customary procedure under the circumstances, and so he refrained from ordering
the expulsion of British diplomats taking part in espionage activities because,
he explained, their replacements might be more adept.
Mr. Powell’s disclosure marked the first official British confirmation of the fake rock affair, and he in turn accused the Russians of being aware of what was going on for awhile but calculating when to reveal the plot so as to countenance a clampdown on government opponents. The British Foreign Office, which administers the MI6 intelligence service, would not address the Powell statements. Britain’s ambassador posted to Russia in 2006 was Tony Brenton, and he likewise contended that the timing of exposure of the fake rock conspiracy was determined by political expediency. He described the subsequent striking deterioration in relations between London and Moscow, pointing out intimidation of diplomats, suits brought against British energy companies, and the poisoning death of dissident one time Russian security official Alexander Litvinenko in England.
Mr. Powell’s disclosure marked the first official British confirmation of the fake rock affair, and he in turn accused the Russians of being aware of what was going on for awhile but calculating when to reveal the plot so as to countenance a clampdown on government opponents. The British Foreign Office, which administers the MI6 intelligence service, would not address the Powell statements. Britain’s ambassador posted to Russia in 2006 was Tony Brenton, and he likewise contended that the timing of exposure of the fake rock conspiracy was determined by political expediency. He described the subsequent striking deterioration in relations between London and Moscow, pointing out intimidation of diplomats, suits brought against British energy companies, and the poisoning death of dissident one time Russian security official Alexander Litvinenko in England.
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