EX BRITISH OFFICIAL CONFIRMS LONGTIME RUSSIAN ASSERTIONS THAT BRITISH AGENTS EMPLOYED FAKE ROCK IN THEIR MOSCOW OPERATIONS

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.