Russia Expels UK Diplomat Amid Tensions Over Ukraine Strikes
(Bloomberg) -- Russia expelled a British diplomat and summoned the UK ambassador, amid a fresh flare-up in tensions over Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, said in a statement on Tuesday that the diplomat had provided false information to obtain a permit and conducted intelligence work. The Russian Foreign Ministry gave the diplomat, who worked in the political department, two weeks to leave the country and summoned British Ambassador Nigel Casey to lodge a formal complaint.
The UK government rejected the allegations and said it was weighing its response. “This is not the first time that Vladimir Putin’s government has made malicious, baseless accusations against our staff,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said in a statement.
The exchange comes amid increased strains over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and British military and diplomatic support for the government in Kyiv. Russia’s ambassador to London, Andrei Kelin, said last week that the UK was now “directly involved” in the war, after Ukraine conducted strikes inside Russian territory with British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.
While Moscow and London have been accusing each other’s diplomats of spying for generations, claims have escalated in recent months. In May, the UK expelled a top Russian envoy and imposed new restrictions on the country’s diplomats, in one of the most high-profile responses yet to what allied officials described as a coordinated espionage campaign to weaken support for Ukraine.
Russia separately in September stripped six diplomats at the British Embassy in Moscow of their accreditations and accused them of “spying and sabotage.” The diplomat marked for expulsion on Tuesday replaced one of those expelled earlier, the FSB said.
Russia Moves to Expel Six UK Diplomats It Accuses of Espionage
“The UK government is unapologetic about protecting our national interests and will now respond in due course, and our embassy in Moscow will continue its important work in Russia to support UK interests,” Starmer’s office said.
--With assistance from Alex Wickham.
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