Russia accused Britain yesterday of running a James Bond-style spying operation using a receiver hidden in a fake rock to gather secret information.

 

Russia's FSB state security service confirmed a state TV program implicating four British Embassy employees in an operation that entailed using a dummy rock equipped with a receiver to gather secret information.

 

"The most important thing is that we caught them red-handed while they were in contact with their agents (and established) that they were financing some non-governmental organizations (NGOs)," FSB chief spokesperson Sergei Ignatchenko said. "What the aim was of this financing has to be carefully worked out," he added.

 

The link made to NGOs was in line with new official curbs on the activities of non-governmental pressure groups such as human rights groups and charities.

 

President Vladimir Putin has said the West is using NGOs as political instruments meaning they are being used to foment unrest of the sort that brought down the pro-Moscow establishment in Ukraine in December 2004.

 

Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group that was linked to the British Embassy in the Rossiya TV program, said the affair was meant to put pressure on rights activists.

 

"I consider that this is a campaign against NGOs in Russia that is being organized from above and includes the television channels," Alexeyeva said. "This is a complete déjà vu from the Soviet Union."

 

In London, the Foreign Office said: "We are concerned and surprised at these allegations. We reject any allegation of improper conduct in our dealing with Russian NGOs.

 

"It is well known that the UK government has financially supported 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."

 

Four British diplomats named

 

Four British diplomats were named as having taken part in the operation that the TV program, shown on Sunday night, said had taken place in autumn last year. The British Embassy declined comment on their present whereabouts.

 

The FSB said a Russian national who had been working for the British had been arrested and sophisticated electronic equipment had been seized.

 

The program said the embassy officials had downloaded classified data from a transmitter in the rock using palm-top computers.

 

In footage that smacked of the Cold War era, the program showed the imitation rock lying in snow by a roadside. A man, identified as one of the four diplomats, walked up to it, picked it up with some effort and made off with it.

 

Ties between the two countries have cooled in recent years after differences over Iraq.

 

(China Daily January 24, 2006)