MOSCOW, July 23 (UPI) -- A senior Russian politician was stopped and frisked by London police near the residence of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, it was reported Friday.
The incident prompted a quick apology from British officials, the Moscow Times said.
Mikhail Margelov, the influential head of the Federation Council's International Affairs Committee who is considered close to President Vladimir Putin, was walking with a British Foreign Ministry official along Whitehall when policemen stopped him, a spokesman for the British Embassy in Moscow said.
Kommersant reported him as saying he had shown the police his diplomatic passport and his Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe document to no avail.
"They checked my briefcase and cell phone," Margelov told Kommersant. "They asked me to spread my legs and arms apart and frisked and searched me."
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said only that Margelov was likely stopped in connection with Britain's Terrorism Act.
