If you can't spy on friends...

...who can you spy on?

From The Moscow Times:

The State Duma said Tuesday that it would lodge a protest with the British Parliament and a European security body over purported British spy activities, while the Foreign Ministry was tight-lipped over whether four diplomats accused of spying would be expelled.

The Federal Security Service, or FSB, announced Monday that it had uncovered a spy ring late last year that included four mid-ranking diplomats at the British Embassy and their Russian contact. The diplomats are accused of downloading information onto hand-held computers from transmitters hidden in fake rocks.

One of the diplomats, the FSB said, had authorized British government grants to 12 Russian nongovernmental organizations, including the Moscow Helsinki Group and the New Eurasia Foundation.

It is not a trivial matter if Britain has been funding Russian NGOs under the table. As the MosNews explains:

Non-governmental organizations with financing from other countries are thought to have played a major role in the “revolutions” that have swept former Soviet states in recent years, prompting some Russian politicians to raise concerns that similar activity was being carried out in Russia. Parliament passed a bill restricting the operation of NGOs at the end of last year.

The US expressed concerns over this law restricting the NGOs, fearing it would restrict legitimate groups from doing much needed work in Russia. There were also concerns this was part of a continuing effort to centralize power in the government and to restrict dissent.

If Britain is involved, it will only strengthen the Russian government's fears that foreign powers could use the NGOs against it.

Also, this comes at a critical time when Britain, among others, is seeking to gain Russia's cooperation in the UN against Iran. This will not help.

As an aside, here is a photo I took of the British Embassy in Moscow. It sits on the banks of the Moscow River. It's the one with the greenish dome, and it's a rather homely building, if you ask me. I took the photo from the other side of the river, in my room in the Ukraina Hotel. (Some scenes in the Sean Connery movie The Russia House were filmed in this hotel.)



Just to set the geography, the embassy is about three kilometers west of the Kremlin. The Russian White House is not far from the British Embassy, just to the left of this photo. And, the US Embassy is across the street from the Russian White House. (The newer building, that is. The older building is up the hill from that.)

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Thomas Jocelyn took note of this as well, and highlights Putin's reaction. (From what I said above, you can guess what Putin's reaction was.)