MOSCOW (AP) — Moscow ordered a British diplomat to leave the country Monday following espionage accusations that United Kingdom officials dismissed as baseless, marking another escalation in deteriorating relations between Russia and Western nations.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, known as the FSB and serving as the nation’s primary domestic intelligence agency, announced in an official statement that the diplomat was engaged in “intelligence and subversive activities that threaten the security of the Russian Federation.”
According to the FSB, the diplomat attempted to collect “sensitive information” regarding Russia’s economic situation through “unofficial meetings” with Russian specialists, though the agency provided no additional specifics. Officials gave the diplomat a two-week deadline to depart the country.
A representative from the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office responded by stating that “the accusations made today by Russia against our diplomats are complete nonsense.”
“Russia has pursued an increasingly aggressive and coordinated campaign of harassment against British diplomats, pumping out malicious and completely baseless accusations about their work,” the spokesperson said. “The UK does not stand for intimidation of British embassy staff and their families.”
This incident represents the second time this year that Russia has forced out a British diplomatic official, following a similar January expulsion that Britain also characterized as “baseless.” London retaliated in February by withdrawing credentials from a Russian diplomatic representative.
Earlier this year in March, Moscow removed two additional British embassy personnel stationed in the Russian capital over similar espionage claims that the UK rejected as false.
Both Russia and NATO member countries have engaged in numerous reciprocal diplomatic expulsions as international relationships have deteriorated to their worst state since Cold War times, following the Kremlin’s military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
