National Post

British operatives used ‘fake rock’ to spy on Russia
What would James Bond do without the ingenious Q, who provides him with all sorts of improbable gadgets for his espionage adventures?

It now seems that Britain’s real-life secret agents have a Q of their own after it emerged that they used a fake rock concealing a high-tech communications device to spy on Russia.

In a television program aired on Russian state television in 2006, Russia’s FSB security service accused Britain of using the gadget for top secret communications in Moscow, but London did not admit to the charge at the time.

Now Jonathan Powell, who was chief of staff to then Prime Minister Tony Blair, has confirmed the Russians were correct.

“They had us bang to rights,” Powell says in a BBC documentary to be aired on Thursday. (Photo: EURONEWS/ROSSIYA TELEVISION AFP/Getty Images)