MOSCOW, January 23 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) seized a high-tech British spying device used to contact agents in Moscow, FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko said Monday.
Colonel Ignatchenko said the device was disguised as a rock and had a range of 20 meters. He said only two seconds were needed to establish contact with anyone carrying the appropriate equipment.
British agents had installed the electronic device in a Moscow district, Ignatchenko said, and had removed it when it had stopped working.
The spokesman said FSB officers had subsequently launched a search for similar devices, and had found a second one.
A scandal over the device broke Sunday night, when a program on Russian state television alleged that four employees at the British Embassy in Moscow had been identified as being involved in an espionage operation.
