Gordon Brown's foreign trip to the G8 summit embarrassed the international reputation of the United Kingdom.
Firstly there was the hypocrisy of his "nanny state" remarks urging the British public to stop wasting food, whilst proceeding to the G8 summit, with its 8 course banquets, in the rented "Hooters" airliner.
There was a general failure of all of the G8 leaders to sort out anything practical about long term global warming, or short term energy prices.
Gordon Brown's meeting with the new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev failed defuse the diplomatic cold war over the Polonium-210 murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London, or the harassment of British Petroleum oil industry investment projects, or the closure of the British Council offices etc.
The utter lack of respect in which Gordon Brown, and, by extension, the whole United Kingdom, seems to be held in by the Russian siloviki and other henchmen Vladimir Putin, who still seems to be the éminence gris behind Dmitry Medvedev, is demonstrated by the Russian state run Interfax News agency's naming of Christopher Bowers a UK Diplomat in Moscow as, "presumably, a senior British intelligence officer,"
11:12 GMT, Jul 10, 2008
Russia's intel denies stepping up anti-UK activities, has questions about UK diplomat's work
MOSCOW. July 10 (Interfax) - Assertions by British officials
implicating Russia in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko and alleging
that Russian specials services have intensified their activities in
Britain are groundless and provocative, Russian special services said."The recent statements on Russian state organization's alleged
involvement in the 'Litvinenko murder' and in the 'Berezovsky's
attempted assassination' have not been backed by any concrete evidence,
and their emergence ahead of talks between the Russian and British
leaders in Japan was provocative," a source in the Russian special
services told Interfax on Thursday."It is clear that behind the stir in the British media before and
after the meeting between the Russian and British leaders stand those
who are not interested in an improvement in Russian-British relations
and who are not happy about the steady development of economic financial
and humanitarian ties between Russia and Western Europe," the source
said."Instances of British intelligence agents' work under diplomatic
cover have been uncovered recently," he said."It's sufficient to recall the episode involving British secret
agents, filmed as they were carrying out a 'cache operation,'
The "fake rock" incident in 2006, allegedly involving a store and forward, short range radio transmitter
or the statements, including those made by Russian officials, that British intelligence is using various public and nongovernmental organizations, including the British Council, in operations in Russia," he also said."Russian special services have questions about the work of
Christopher Bowers, the UK Embassy's counselor, and, presumably, a senior British intelligence officer, who in the early 1990s worked under the 'cover' of a BBC correspondent in Tashkent," the source said.sd dp
There has been a lot of mainstream media reporting about this, both before and now after Gordon Brown's embarrassing trip to the G8 summit. e.g. the Daily Mail which describes the UK diplomat as
Russian security officials said the official, named as Christopher Bower, director of UK trade and investment at the British embassy, was a senior British intelligence officer.
Mr Bower worked as a reporter for the BBC before joining the UK Foreign Office in the 1990s.
We assume that the Daily Mail has misspelled the surname, since the British Embassy in Moscow website agrees with Interfax and spells it "Bowers".
Meet UK Trade & Investment Russia Team
CHRIS BOWERS
Based in Moscow
Deputy Director of Trade & Investment Russia
IRINA SCHERBAN
based in Moscow
PA to Counsellor
Direct telephone: +7 495 956 7451
E-mail: Irina.Scherban@fco.gov.uk[...]
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan, so perhaps former UK Ambassador Craig Murray will have a comment to make on this allegation (see the next blog article for more about the latest attempts to censor him by the "shyster" legal firm of Schillings).
Is this in retaliation for the allegations in the British mainstream media against Alexander V. Polyakov in the Russian Embassy in London ?
Will there now be a further round of "outing" of alleged or actual intelligence officers working under diplomatic cover, and perhaps another round of tit for tat expulsions in London and Moscow ?
The weakness and unpopularity of the Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown, as a result of his domestic policies, together with his evident lack of charm on the international diplomat front, is damaging the power and international standing of the United Kingdom, not just in the European Union, but throughout the rest of the world as well.