PM David Cameron is front and center in the latest diplomatic spat between Russia and the UK.
21st Century Wire
WHITEHALL BEAT
The tit-for-tat diplomatic row between Britain and Russia escalated today when in a sensational development a senior Russian Figure admitted Vladimir Putin had held secret talks with key FIFA Officials in the build up to last week’s summit
Russia side-stepped England along with two other joint European bids from Spain/Portugal and Belgium/the Netherlands to win the right to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup for the first time in the country’s history.
From a Crown perspective, perhaps the most significant of the casualties of England’s failed mission was that its future King, Prince William, failed to bring back a royal booty from his first major diplomatic crusade overseas.
Sources inside Whitehall are speculating that the near knee-jerk netting of an alleged ‘Russian mole’ in the House of Commons was merely an attempt to equalise by Buckingham Palace in this diplomatic turf war.
Former FIFA vice-president Vyacheslav Koloskov, a Russian ambassador for the winning bid, admitted that the Russian Prime Mininster had met in advance with at least a third of the members of the key FIFA executive committee, but that “We kept this a secret and only now can we disclose it”.
Grandmaster Putin outflanked England, Benelux and the Iberian Peninsula to win the cup bid.
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Meanwhile, in an undisclosed detention facility inside the London beltway, the Russian woman threatened with deportation by MI5 for alleged spying in relation for Britain’s Zurich mauling by the Russian bear, has claimed she will fight to clear her name. Katia Zatuliveter, 25, claims she had no idea why she had been arrested and told she would be kicked out of Britain.
“I am… appealing against the deportation and absolutely sure I will win, if there’s any justice.”
Her father, businessman Andrei Zatuliveter, accused British Home Secretary Theresa May of “dipping my daughter in the dirt” and said she was being treated in an uncivilised and inhuman way”.
Contributors to this story are Giles Dexter and Jason Smith.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS: Russian Charge D’affaires confirms 21st Century Wire story: UK media goes blackout
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