UK - The samovar was identified as a potential bugging device following a recent sweep by the security services.The ornate red and yellow urn was presented to the Queen by a Russian aerobatics team about 20 years ago, at the tail end of the Soviet era. It reportedly became a favourite of the Queen Mother, who put it in a corner of a room in the Aberdeenshire estate and apparently showed it off to visitors.
Security services apparently suspected that the complicated eastern European wiring could have concealed a listening device. If true, the teapot could have listened in to the Queen's conversations with prime ministers, world leaders and members of her family.
One retainer told the Daily Express: "The samovar was always a bit of an enigma. No one could work out what the Russians thought we were going to do with it. "The wiring looked as if it came from a Second World War tank and it was not exactly pretty. "No one ever considered it a security risk until a recent sweep by these spooks with their electronic devices. They swept everywhere imaginable, public and private rooms, and the first thing to go was the samovar." (more)
The Russian side of the story...
Mikhail Lyubimov, who served in the Russian secret services in Britain for several decades, says that the story may be a canard, since the alleged bugging model referred to by the Daily Express is both ineffective and useless.
"Buckingham Palace and the Queen were never objects of great interest to us, since the Queen doesn't have an active role in Britain's governance,” he points out.
Moreover, Lyubimov states that the electric device is unlikely to have been a regular guest at government meetings or any negotiations that the Queen might have conducted with important visitors.
Nevertheless, the ex-secret agent recalls an equally strange story, involving a Russian souvenir. In the 1960s, the US ambassador to Russia was presented with a wooden eagle, which stood in the corner of his office for several years before it was discovered that there was a bug embedded in it. (more) (The Great Seal Bug)
