By Iain Hollignshead. See also 'After the rock, a much harder place' (THE GUARDIAN, 06/05/06):
Last week, the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) took the unprecedented step of advertising a variety of positions in the Times and the Economist. The world's second oldest profession had finally caught up with the oldest and proffered its services to anyone who was interested. Cynics with a shorter-term memory wondered whether they should also have advertised for replacement rock-makers.
The strange saga of the Moscow rock erupted on January 22 when Russian state television broadcast footage it claimed showed British agents retrieving data from a fake rock planted on a street. The programme also featured documents alleging improper financial transactions between MI6 and Russian NGOs. Tony Blair deflected media questioning, joking that the government never commented on security matters. "Except when we want to, obviously."
For a while, however, it looked like the situation might escalate into something more serious. A spokesman for the FSB, the successor to the KGB, warned that the matter would be dealt with "at a political level" - Kremlin code for expulsion. At least two Russian citizens were arrested. The KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky was wheeled out of retirement to condemn the whole charade as a "KGB [sic] stunt".
Yet within a week President Vladimir Putin was rivalling Mr Blair with his quips. "If we expel these spies, others will come in their place," he told a news conference. "Maybe bright ones ... and we'll beat ourselves up trying to find them." Mr Putin was thought to be reluctant to reignite the tit-for-tat expulsions that characterised the cold war. The British security services believe there are around 35 Russian agents operating in London.
Three months later, a press officer in the British embassy in Moscow confirms that no one has been expelled. "No official allegation was ever made to the embassy here," he says. Meanwhile, a spokesman in London says that the Foreign Office "considers this event to be closed".
Yet this story retains a number of interesting strands. One is Mr Gordievsky's claim - backed up by some NGOs working in the region - that this was all part of an elaborate smear campaign to gain tighter control over the non-governmental sector. Although Mr Putin has praised NGOs as an "important component of the political system" he recently brought in draconian legislation to monitor these groups. And while the Foreign Office continues to fund NGOs "to foster civil society", the Kremlin remains wary. It is widely believed that western money played an important role in bringing about the Orange revolution in Ukraine.
Another interesting theme is the enduring and widespread obsession with espionage. "The cold war has ended," said one former KGB agent recently. "Now we have the hot peace." Russia's links with countries such as Iran, its vast nuclear arsenal and its energy resources make it an ongoing target for intelligence agencies, whether allies or not.
In the public's view, too, the "great game" continues, with increasingly blurred lines between reality and fiction. MI6's new website feels the need to promise employees a "career which, like Bond's, will be in the service of their country". Question nine on the FAQs on MI5's website gives a lengthy answer comparing its work to the BBC's popular spy drama Spooks. One former KGB chief may have said he could learn more from the New York Times than by infiltrating the National Security Agency. But where's the fun in that?