RUSSIA claims to have smashed a British spy ring and is threatening to kick four British diplomats out of the country.

Security chiefs in Moscow claim the four embassy officials used a fake rock, deposited on a city street, to store electronic eavesdropping equipment used to download information to and from palmtop computers.

The allegations follow the broadcast of a film on Russian state television claiming that British agents had been "caught red-handed" downloading information onto hand-held computers from a transmitter hidden inside the fake rock.

The programme also claimed unauthorised payments were being made to organisations critical of President Vladimir Putin's regime.

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