MOSCOW, January 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's domestic security service said Thursday that the data transmission device disguised as a rock at the center of an espionage scandal with the United Kingdom represented the most modern technology of British intelligence.
Sergei Ignatchenko, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service (FSB), told the state television channel that broke the story on Sunday that the "rock" was a highly durable piece of equipment that could survive being thrown from the ninth floor of a residential building and could be submerged in water for a long time.
"It has several levels of protection," he said. "According to analyses by our experts, this item is worth tens of millions of pounds sterling. Such wonder-technology can only be created in laboratory conditions."
According to Ignatchenko, the "rock" currently in the FSB's possession is the second transmission device that was discovered in a winter counter-espionage operation. The first was taken from the communications site by a British agent, and the second was monitored before a decision was taken to seize it.
The spy scandal erupted after state-owned channel Rossiya broke the news in a program featuring video footage and interviews with people who said they were representatives of the FSB.
They said British agents had planted the fake rock on a Moscow street, allowing agents to upload classified computer data that could then be downloaded by British Embassy employees.
The FSB said it had identified four British agents operating in Moscow under diplomatic cover.
The security service also alleged that Marc Doe, a first secretary at the British Embassy in Moscow, had been authorizing regular payments to Russian non-governmental organizations. Several documents signed by him were shown as evidence of cash payments to NGOs operating in Moscow, including 23,000 pounds (about $40,000) to the Moscow Helsinki Group, and 5,719 pounds ($9,700) to the Eurasia Foundation. The former has denied any wrongdoing.
