Britain's Piece of the Russian Rock

"British used a fake rock in Moscow spying" New York Times January 20, 2012

LONDON - A former British senior official has confirmed Russian accusations that the British spy service tried to use a fake rock in Moscow to hide electronic communication equipment six years ago.

The Russian allegation in January 2006 came as relations between London and Moscow soured, with a series of events culminating in the death in London of a former KGB officer, Alexander V. Litvinenko, in November of that year. British officials later accused another former KGB officer of murdering him using a rare radioactive isotope, polonium 210.

The BBC yesterday quoted Jonathan Powell, onetime chief of staff to former prime minister Tony Blair, as saying Russia “had us bang to rights’’ when Russian television showed how British diplomats used the fake rock to pass information.

“Clearly they had known about it for some time,’’ Powell was quoted as saying. They had been “saving it up for a political purpose,’’ he said, according to the BBC....

The Russian allegation, which the British authorities declined to confirm at the time, triggered other claims by the Moscow security authorities that Britain was helping fund nongovernmental organizations opposed to Vladimir Putin....  

Translation: your government lies. 

And Britain has its hand in the destabilization campaign in Russia.

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