Russian TV alleges UK espionage

[bigfootedfred]

Russian state television has broadcast video footage of what it claims are British diplomats spying in Moscow.
In the programme, people claiming to be Russian intelligence officers say
British agents planted a transmitter in an imitation rock on a Moscow street.
The officers say British embassy officials then walked past downloading data from the "rock's" transmitter.
The UK Foreign Office said it was "concerned and surprised" at the claims and denied any improper conduct.

Carried away
The programme said four officials from the British embassy and one Russian citizen, allegedly recruited by the British secret service, downloading classified data from the rock's transmitter onto palm-top computers.

We reject any allegation of improper conduct in our dealing with Russian NGOs
--[note: NGO = non-governmental organisation]--
UK Foreign Office

According to the programme, the Russian citizen was later arrested.
Hidden camera footage appears to show individuals walking up to the rock.
One man is caught on camera carrying it away.
When contacted by the BBC, Russia's internal security service, the FSB, refused to comment but the programme contained a number of interviews with officials claiming to be from the FSB confirming the story.
The programme also alleged that one of the embassy officials involved had been authorising regular payments to Russian non-governmental organisations.
The UK Foreign Office statement said: "We are concerned and surprised at these allegations. We reject any allegation of improper conduct in our dealing with Russian NGOs."
It said it was well known that the British government had given financial support to projects implemented by Russian NGOs in the field of human rights and civil society.
"All our assistance is given openly and aims to support the development of a healthy civil society in Russia," the statement said.

source

The program itself, was broadcast on one of the major Russian state operated TV networks.....

oh and this looks even more intersting...seems Russia is up to many a trick already this year.

Russia blamed for 'gas sabotage'

Georgia's president has accused Moscow of serious acts of "sabotage" after gas blasts on Russian pipelines cut off supplies to Georgia and Armenia.
Mikhail Saakashvili told the BBC the near simultaneous attacks close to Georgia's border were pre-planned actions orchestrated by Russia.
An electricity transmission line was also destroyed as Georgia experiences extremely cold weather.
Russia's foreign ministry dismissed Mr Saakashvili's remarks as "hysteria".
Russian prosecutors earlier described the attacks as deliberate criminal acts and said an investigation was under way.
Georgia has no gas reserves and was due to run out of gas on Sunday evening, correspondents say.
Relations between Georgia and Russia have been tense since Mr Saakashvili was swept to power by the so-called "Rose Revolution" in 2003, pledging to lead his nation on a pro-Western course.

source

[Cadmium77]

And Putin has openly stated that the CIA was behind the Chechen attack on the schoolhouse in North Ossetia

[Tiwaz]

Welcome to wonderful world of Russia. One guy wrote a book there recently where he claims Finland is preparing to invade Russia.

[wilpuri]

Welcome to wonderful world of Russia. One guy wrote a book there recently where he claims Finland is preparing to invade Russia.

Yeah, where it so subtly referred to our president as "the one who looks like a cow"
The best part was when one of the evening tabloids tried to track down the author for an interview and the publisher refused to give the name of the author (writes under pseudonym). The publisher then defended himself by saying, that in Russia they have freedom of speech, you know.

Anyway, Russia is insane. Zhirinovsky is insane. In (Soviet) Russia the government conspires against you!

[Valentin the II]

Wow wow it seems that you cant stop critisizing russia.
The whole story with Giorgia is stupid, why would russia blow up its own pipeline!?
And the story with the British spise seems preaty reasonable.
Dont tell me that you saught there were no spyse in Russia.

-Valik

[Tacticalwithdrawal]

Actually, it is quite interesting, not that this is going on (everyone knows we spy on them, they spy on us) but as an indicator of the Russian current frame of mind that they have publicised this.

Looks like we are steadily heading back to the cold war, particularly since Georgia is now accusing Russia of blowing up their oil pipeline.

[Tacticalwithdrawal]

you didn't read what I said, it's not that people are spying, that's a given, the interesting thing is that Russia is publicising the spying.

and the same with the Georgia thing, what is interesting is that Georgia feels that the current political climate allows it to make such a statement without being laughed at.

[wilpuri]

Just as a side note, the amount of spies in Helsinki has risen back to cold-war level, according to Helsingin Sanomat. Something is in the air...

[Bwaho]

Russia is evil...I read they stopped supplying Georgia with the pipelines...and it's currently really cold winter there

[Valentin the II]

Russia is evil...I read they stopped supplying Georgia with the pipelines...and it's currently really cold winter there

Um.... They stoped supluying them becaws the Russia-Georgia pipeline was sabotajed .
And anyway, russia has much larger problems then georgia (-30 in Moscow ).

Ps: Tacticalwithdrawal, I didnt get to read your paost, we posted at the same time .
Oh, and I totaly agre with you.

-Valik

[wilpuri]

This whole espionage thing ia being made into a big deal probably just to whip up support for the new law that will seriously suppress the activities of NGOs in Russia, especially foreign NGO's. The British spies allegedly funded some foreign NGOs in Russia.

[therussian]

The sooner Putin is out of the Kremlin, the sooner the Russian government will recover




Hopefully....

[Bwaho]

The sooner Putin is out of the Kremlin, the sooner the Russian government will recover

no no, you got it wrong. The sooner Putin is out Kremlin, the sooner one of his friends will take his place.

[Last Roman]

no no, you got it wrong. The sooner Putin is out Kremlin, the sooner one of his friends will take his place.

exactly. Russia is more crooked than...something that is really bent (sorry long day at school). All we can do is hope that Putin's friend does a better job than Putin did (that or a democratic revolution, but very unlikely)