http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6164284.stm
It's just like in the movies! How exciting (well not for the poor spy, obviously). Makes a change from all the Iraq/Bush/Blar/yada yada yada.....
Its not the first time this has happened, although names escape me now.
There was a notorious case - Markov - where ( Ithink) BUlgarian intelligence killed a dissident who had defected and lived in London. In that case the weapon of choice was a poison tipped umbrella.
What is worrying now is that the cold war is supposed to be over and Russia is supposed to be a democracy.
Truth is that the west has less scope to protest such things today than it did in the cold war. Putin controls vast oil and gas reserves - if Europe kicks up a stink the next 'cold' war will be a little more litteral than the last.
Yes I remember the umbrella killing. They used Resin to do the deal.
But sssshhhhh don't want to be on amyones shit list lol
Russia is a mafia run state, not a real democracy. Putin is an arrogant authoritarian that creates hell for those who depend on "his" natural gas. Hopefully, Scotland Yard can find out who did what and when, but usually the spy cases are so difficult to solve due to the secrecy involved.
Never put Intell people in charge of a country. Ex-KGB and all that (in his own words, "here is no such thing as a former KGB man") especially one with prior responsibilities in silencing dissidents. Putin is a weird one and Russia epitomises exactly what is wrong with labelling a nation state legit just because it calls itself a democracy.
Good point posh2 - I wouldn't expect a cut and dried case either way because its a political hot potato.
One of Britain's many faults is that it is desperate to bury a lot of important facts as Official Secrets and has done so for many years. Certainly, other nations do this as well or perhaps better but they generally can't claim to be a democracy. Even the USA has the Freedom of Information Act which can and does pull out important information that even the government's heavy-handed redacting can't always hide forever.
As a case in point, I'd love to see the documents which surely existed around the time that the leader of the Free Polish in Britain was killed in an "accident" off Gibralter during World War II. At the same time, two of his deputies were betrayed and captured by the Germans. Coincidence? Perhaps, until you look at what else was going on in the war and these same Poles were starting to tear the Allies apart because they correctly were pointing the finger at the Russians (and not the Germans as first thought) for the Katyn massacre (of Polish soldiers and civilians). The question is not whether the Poles were assasinated or betrayed but rather WHO assasinated and betrayed them? Russians with British/American help or just the British, to keep the alliance together?
Dirty business altogether but the documents are locked away for about 100 years and it is unlikely that they will be released in my lifetime. Britain needs a FOIA and to realise that it holds these documents for its people and locking anything up for 100 years should never be permitted.
Good points pilgrim but sometimes you have to ask was someone knocked off for the greater good or just to stop red faces etc
With the Polish stuff could it not be said if they got their message out there (whatever it was) could it have coursed the collapse of the allied forces. If it could have, germany may have won the war and gone on killing millions etc. I guess I see it as no different as sending and army unit out to draw out an ambush, so you can then attack them.
what a world we have. lol
I fail to see how it was "the greater good". Almost fifty years of the Cold War, several countries forced into the same bondage that the Allies were supposedly fighting to spare them from and more killing by the Soviets than the Germans ever managed makes a mockery of the reasons for going to war in the first place.
An alternative theory is that the Germans might have got their wish at the end of the war and seen the alliance break apart and Germany becoming a replacement ally for the worrisome Soviets.
The point is that documentation exists and fifty years is plenty of time to pass before ALL facts, embarrassing or otherwise can be shared with the population. Any document tagged for 100 years, with the option to extend is obviously hiding some guilty secret and therefore should never have been locked away in the first place.
ah Pilgrim the greater good at the time. will not defend the breakup of europe and the thousands that died under the hand of starlin, but i doubt europe would have fared any better under the hands of someone like hitler. He would have killed just as many millions if he came to power as well as wipe out entire races of people.
The fact that the papers are marked for another 100 yrs, you better your bottom dollar that theres gonna be some very serious questions asked, if they can find them at that point.
Throught history countries have become best pals with some of the strangest countries even starlin sided with hitler at the very beginning, because he thought he was getting half of Poland.
Its seems people learn through history, but when you become a political power that part of your brain seems to fail lol