Blair official admits UK spies foiled by Russia
Source: Agencies |
January 20, 2012, Friday
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Print Edition
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It was the spy saga that sounded too implausible to be true - British intelligence officers communicating with Russian agents using equipment hidden inside a fake rock left in a Moscow park.
Now Tony Blair's ex-chief of staff Jonathan Powell has acknowledged that Russia's accusations against Britain over the 2006 affair were correct, the first official acknowledgment of the plot that soured ties between London and the Kremlin.
At the time, Russian state television broadcast footage which appeared to show four British officials placing or retrieving the fake rock, and exposed the sophisticated communications equipment inside the plastic boulder.
Blair, then the British prime minister, declined to comment on the issue and Britain's government has never confirmed the Russian allegations.
Powell, however, told the BBC in a documentary broadcast yesterday that British spies had been caught red-handed.
"There's not much you can say, you can't really call up and say 'I'm terribly sorry about that, it won't happen again.' I mean, they had us bang to rights," said Powell, Blair's chief of staff.
Moscow said British officials and their Russia contacts had used pocket-sized computers to download data to and from a gadget hidden in the rock as they walked past it, a process which worked at a distance of up to 20 meters and took only one or two seconds.
Russia's then President Vladimir Putin chose not to expel the British diplomats involved, claiming that Britain would only send more capable officers to replace them.
Britain's Foreign Office, responsible for the overseas MI6 spy agency, declined to comment on Powell's remarks.
Now Tony Blair's ex-chief of staff Jonathan Powell has acknowledged that Russia's accusations against Britain over the 2006 affair were correct, the first official acknowledgment of the plot that soured ties between London and the Kremlin.
At the time, Russian state television broadcast footage which appeared to show four British officials placing or retrieving the fake rock, and exposed the sophisticated communications equipment inside the plastic boulder.
Blair, then the British prime minister, declined to comment on the issue and Britain's government has never confirmed the Russian allegations.
Powell, however, told the BBC in a documentary broadcast yesterday that British spies had been caught red-handed.
"There's not much you can say, you can't really call up and say 'I'm terribly sorry about that, it won't happen again.' I mean, they had us bang to rights," said Powell, Blair's chief of staff.
Moscow said British officials and their Russia contacts had used pocket-sized computers to download data to and from a gadget hidden in the rock as they walked past it, a process which worked at a distance of up to 20 meters and took only one or two seconds.
Russia's then President Vladimir Putin chose not to expel the British diplomats involved, claiming that Britain would only send more capable officers to replace them.
Britain's Foreign Office, responsible for the overseas MI6 spy agency, declined to comment on Powell's remarks.
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