Last updated at 9:21 AM on 19th January 2012
Britain will today admit that its agents were behind a plot to spy on Russians with a device hidden in a fake rock.
The scheme was embarrassingly exposed on Russian television when the 'spy rock' was discovered in a Moscow street six years ago.
It led to a diplomatic row, with Russia naming four British diplomats as agents and accusing the UK of reneging on a deal not to spy on each other struck at the end of the Cold War.
Decoy: This fake rock contains a transmitter and was used in Moscow by a British spy ring, Tony Blair's former chief of staff has admitted. Russia's spy service the KGB said it was placed in a park outside Moscow.
Tony Blair, then prime minister, tried to laugh off the incident, while the Foreign Office denied any improper conduct.
But today Mr Blair's former chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, will admit in BBC documentary Putin, Russia and the West that the allegations were true.
He will say: 'The spy rock was embarrassing. They had us bang to rights. Clearly they had known about it for some time and had been saving it up for a political purpose.'
The rock contained a transmitter. A Russian source – believed to have been a member of Moscow's intelligence community – is said to have used a hand-held computer to beam digital data to the device while walking by.
Hours or days later, MI6 spies would stroll nonchalantly past and use their own hand-held devices to retrieve the data.
The video broadcast on Russian TV showed a man walking along the pavement, slowing his pace, glancing at a rock and, after a second, picking up his pace. The camera then filmed another man who walked by and picked up the rock.
Spying? A TV grab from Russian television's RTR channel, broadcast on January 22, 2006. It is alleged to show a British spy picking up a transmitter disguised as a rock in a Moscow park
Suspicious: Russian TV claimed this image shows a member of the British embassy's staff touching the fake rock spy device with his foot
Embarrassing: Tony Blair, then prime minister, tried to laugh off the 'spy rock' incident, while the Foreign Office denied any improper conduct
One of the alleged spies was the official assistant to the MI6 desk officer in Moscow. But although they were humiliated, the alleged agents were not thrown out of Russia.
According to the Russian security service, FSB, the device was planted among roadside bushes by British spies posing as diplomats. It claimed it had decided to 'expose' their undercover activities because Britain had flouted an agreement between the two countries not to spy on each other.
But in London security sources maintained that the Russians had been engaged in widespread intelligence gathering in Britain.
An FSB official told the Moscow TV programme that one of the diplomats identified had been authorising payments to Russian non-governmental organisations including civil rights activists.
The Kremlin then used the incident to help justify a new law cracking down on human rights and pro-democracy groups, which then president Vladimir Putin said were funded by Western secret services.
It is extremely rare for Britain to admit to spying matters. At the time, Mr Blair said: 'I'm afraid you're going to get the old stock in trade of never commenting on security matters. Except when we want to, obviously.'
- Putin, Russia and the West is on BBC Two at 9pm tonight.
Source : dailymail
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