The Russians aren't coming...

What is it about the involvement of Russians that breeds a certain intrigue to a situation? Perhaps it's because of all those James Bond movies, or that old American sci-fi that ingrained a subliminal fear of the Cold War into anybody that watched it. It seems to us that you could add a Slavic accent to just about any situation and be rewarded with a fistful of suspense. Try ordering your Big Mac in a Russian accent next time you pop into the capitalist pig eating establishment, for example, see if the spotty twat behind the counter doesn't stiffen-up in misty paranoia.

Maybe it's Sputnik's fault. Or Tatu, the singing lesbians. Whatever it is, it seems almost impossible to imagine a situation that involves the Russians not having something to do with espionage...

The latest instance of this phenomenon involves Andrew Mackinlay, a Labour MP, who claims that he was mysteriously warned off by an unidentified government minister after stating his intentions to meet with a Russian embassy official. It certainly all sounds very cloak and dagger and was described by Mackinlay as being quite 'menacing'.

How scandalous...

Further giving credence to the notion that somebody is spying on somebody is Mackinlay's claim that he was called to the 'headmaster's office', after previous meetings in Parliament with Russian officials, only to discover that the Westminster big shots already knew what he'd discussed with his comrades. Sounds like somebody's got a bug in his ass, though it isn't the spying that's got Mackinlay's treacherous knickers in a twist, just the breach of his rights after being warned off:

"What it was, was an approach by a minister warning me off doing this, and that was unacceptable to me and remains so."

Everybody knows that Vladimir Putin is used to be one of the biggest fish in the KGB's aquarium. Does his government have plans that we don't know about?

Meet us down the back of Tower Bridge at sundown and we'll let you know...

Written by Oli Anderson on 23 May 2008 8:55 AM. Permalink