The Russian Parliament is to discuss spying allegations against four British diplomats who had allegedly channelled funds to NGOs in Russia.
The Federal Security Service (FSB), on Tuesday briefed the Duma, or Parliament, behind closed doors over suggestions that the diplomats were undercover agents who had hidden a transmitter in a rock in a Moscow suburb to liaise via palmtop computer with agents in Russia.
The FSB said Marc Doe (27) an embassy liaison officer working with NGOs, was an MI6 agent and that his payments to the organisations had discredited their work.
Boris Gryzlov, the Duma speaker, told Interfax: ”We are witnesses to the fact that not only are espionage activities being conducted in Moscow, but also that foreign secret services are financing non-governmental organisations. We are troubled by this situation and it is possible … we will address our British colleagues from the English Parliament.” The Russian foreign ministry declined to comment.
The four alleged spies were still at their posts on Monday. The FSB claimed it had asked the embassy’s political secretary, Paul Crompton — who the bureau alleges to be the MI6 desk officer in Moscow — to stop the espionage but that he had denied any such activities. The FSB then used state media to expose the unit.
Both the Kremlin and Foreign Office seem keen to put the incident behind them. Chief FSB spokesperson Sergei Ignatchenko told the state Rossiskaya Gazeta newspaper that with Russia now chairing the G8 ”we don’t need any large political scandals right now”.
Russian secret service veterans said Britain may ”respond” by exposing Moscow’s spies in the UK, and said Britain would now be obliged to withdraw the diplomats. Russian NGOs, subject to a new law that could inhibit activities, said the incident would not stop them taking funds from foreign governments.
The Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday that prosecutors in St Petersburg had reopened an inquiry into the Foreign Office-funded British Council, claiming that because it was a for-profit organisation it should be liable to tax. A council spokesperson said the body had registered all its branches in Moscow and St Petersburg with tax authorities last year and had met all payment demands. – Guardian Unlimited Â