Dead british spy: the russian connection

When an employee of British spy agency MI6 is found dead, packed in a holdall in his bathtub, everyone’s going to speculate about which other intelligence agency was to blame.

And, naturally, there’s a Russian link to the death of MI6 officer Gareth Williams. Sort of.

It turns out that the flat Williams lived, and died, in was owned by a company called “New Rodina”. Registered in the Virgin Islands, everyone initially thought that New Rodina must be a Russian company. And, given that Russians are well known in the British press as ruthless killers (see: any coverage about the death of Alexander Litvinenko) that’s led to a bit of idle speculation that he’s been killed by Russian agents.

It seems, though, that Rodina might actually be a front company for MI6, or perhaps GCHQ (the British listening agency). According to the Guardian newspaper:

New Rodina, which means “new home” or “new homeland” in Russian, is a familiar one for Russian speakers, and may have been part of an in-joke among GCHQ employees relocated to London. Typically, Russians who live abroad refer to their adopted country as a “new rodina”. “There is an element of joke in it. Russians like this kind of wordplay,” one Russian said.

I suppose all spies have to live somewhere. And the home insurance for a landlord called “MI6″ has got to be through the roof.

Dead British Spy: The Russian Connection is a post from: Siberian Light