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Jonathan Nicholas PowellBlair's former chief of staff.
Date of Birth: 14.08.1956
Country:  Great Britain |
Content:
Former Head of Blair's Administration
On January 19th, the British media reported a sensational statement made by Jonathan Powell, the former head of the administration of ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair. The diplomat and advisor to the Prime Minister revealed that British intelligence services did indeed use a "spy stone" to gather intelligence in Russia, a device that was previously thought to be a product of the FSB's imagination. In fact, Powell's confession became public knowledge as early as 2011 in an interview for the documentary film "Putin, Russia and the West," produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in collaboration with the German broadcaster MDR. The four-part series aired on the German network on December 11th and 18th, but at the time, Powell's revelations went unnoticed. It may have been due to the less-than-ideal timing of the broadcast, which started at 11:40 PM local time. It wasn't until January 19th, on the day of the show's premiere on British television, that Powell's statements gained attention. "Well, what can I say," the newspapers quoted Blair's advisor. "The 'spy stone' incident was embarrassing. We got caught red-handed." Powell's revelations caused a mild shock in the United Kingdom. Firstly, the local media and the public, who had previously accused Moscow of still harboring a Cold War mentality after 20 years, were forced to acknowledge that the same accusations could be leveled against London. Secondly, the intelligence community expressed complete bewilderment at the fact that such an informed official as the head of the former prime minister's administration would make such admissions. In theory, information of this nature should be strictly classified and not publicly disclosed for at least 30, if not 50 years. However, Powell's statement came as an even greater surprise to Russia.
"Spy Stone" Revelation in Russia
The Russians first learned about the "spy stone" from a program called "Special Correspondent," which aired in January 2006 on the Russian television channel "Russia." In the program, the author, Arkady Mamontov, detailed the functioning of the ingenious invention used by foreign spies: a plastic stone packed with transmitting equipment. In essence, the stone was a hiding place, an improved version of a classic "dead drop." Inside, a transmitter was hidden, through which British spies received intelligence from their Moscow contacts. A recruited Russian would pass by the stone, placed in a small park next to a sidewalk in one of the streets of Moscow, and upload data from their laptop onto it. The process took only two seconds, and the upload could be done from a distance of up to 20 meters. After some time, a British agent would pass by the same stone and effortlessly download the information onto their palm device.
The program also revealed the identities of the spies: various employees of the British Embassy in Moscow would pass by the stone, which was under surveillance by the FSB. The main motive for their espionage activities was said to be the financing of Russian non-profit organizations. Critics of the program had many complaints, primarily that the plot was too obviously politically motivated. A few days before the program aired, Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia at the time, signed a law restricting the activities of NGOs in Russia, and the program exposing how corrupt Russian human rights activists received money from foreign spies seemed too conveniently timed.
This "seemingly ordinary stone" from Mamontov's program drew widespread criticism. The demonstration of this absurd spy invention, the interview with an FSB operative with his back to the camera, and other details created an atmosphere reminiscent of conspiracy TV shows about aliens. The intonation, such as "our brave counterintelligence exposed an espionage network," left no doubt that the program was made at the Kremlin's request. Thus, the term "spy stone" became synonymous with poorly executed television propaganda. However, the exposure of the spies led to a diplomatic scandal, which marked the beginning of the cooling of Russian-British relations. The stone incident occurred long before the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, which further strained relations between London and Moscow. Russian authorities accused Britain of espionage (although no official charges were brought), while the British government denied everything and even refused to dismiss the diplomats involved in the affair. Nevertheless, the British Foreign Office, while expressing surprise at the incident, did not deny anything. Tony Blair himself refused to comment on the situation, implying that it would be ridiculous to take such absurdities seriously.
In reality, the only thing that Jonathan Powell has now confirmed is that the British did indeed use a transmitter hidden in a stone in Russia. The same "spy stone" that had been dismissed as a product of the Russian intelligence's imagination and had been the subject of ridicule directed at Arkady Mamontov. Ultimately, it is a somewhat well-known fact that foreign embassies in other countries engage in gathering information, including, if possible, secret intelligence. So, there are no complaints against the FSB in this story. The intelligence service did their job: they identified recruited informants, discovered the hiding place, learned how it worked, and exposed the actions of foreign agents. However, Arkady Mamontov's program exposed not British spies, but Russian human rights activists who had nothing to do with the "spy stone."
Therefore, the only consequence of Powell's unexpected confession was that British intelligence services, who had consistently denied the accusations, found themselves in a rather foolish position. On the other hand, Arkady Mamontov's reputation was only partially restored: critics who had mocked the journalist for the "seemingly ordinary stone" may now bite their tongues, but the clearly politically motivated nature of the spy episode of "Special Correspondent" has not been dismissed.
