Russia has accused Britain of running a spying operation in Moscow using a receiver hidden in a fake rock to gather secret information.
Russia's FSB state security service confirmed a state TV programme implicating four British embassy employees in an operation that they say entailed using a dummy rock equipped with a receiver to gather secret information.
British diplomats have been accused of spying in Russia using a transmitter in an imitation rock. Photograph: Reuters
"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 organisations," an FSB spokesman said.
Russian based human rights bodies said the spying may be targeting them, following new curbs on the actions of local non-governmental organisations (NGO).
President Vladimir Putin has said the West is using NGOs as political instruments to foment unrest of the sort that brought down the pro-Moscow establishment in Ukraine in December 2004.
Russian based human rights bodies said the spying may be targeting them, following new curbs on the actions of local non-governmental organisations (NGO).
Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, which was linked to the British embassy in the TV programme, said the affair was meant to put pressure on rights activists.
"I consider that this is a campaign against non-governmental organisations in Russia which is being organised from above and includes the television channels," Ms Alexeyeva said.
The FSB said a Russian national who had been working for the British had been arrested and sophisticated electronic equipment had been seized.
The programme said the embassy officials had downloaded classified data from a transmitter in the rock using palm-top computers.