>> it comes as no surprise that aspying is still going on since the cold war. this is the kind of thing in the cold war that often you get these kinds of things. trading information or putting it behind the toilet with the kinds of things that would happen. i mean, here in britain you have the head of counterintelligence. there are complaints about the number of russian intelligence officers in u.k. taking up their time. the fact is we know they are doing it, but it is unusual to get caught doing it in a very open way and then to admit that you were doing it. that is unusual. >> this is not an admission by the authorities anymore. this is jonathan powell who has no role to play today. nonetheless, what does it tell us about perhaps tensions between moscow and london today that this can come out relatively harmlessly, we presume? >> this -- there was a period particularly after the killing of the russian u.k. officer where tensions were running high and these accusations were leading to a lot of problems. so there are serious consequences, if you like, to these