Russia expels British diplomats over spying claims

Vladimir Putin’s Russia has expelled one British diplomat and the spouse of another, accusing them of spying.

The pair were accused of engaging in intelligence activity under cover of the embassy in Moscow.

They have been ordered to leave the country within two weeks, the Russian news agency Tass said, citing the country’s FSB security agency.

“The Federal Security Service’s counter-intelligence operations exposed the unreported intelligence presence of the United Kingdom under the cover of the country’s embassy in Moscow,” an FSB statement cited by Tass reads.

It is the latest in a series of tit-for-tat expulsions involving the UK’s embassy in Moscow and the Russian mission in London.

‘Unapologetic’

In February the Foreign Office stripped a Russian diplomat of their accreditation, with David Lammy saying the the UK will be “unapologetic” in standing up to Mr Putin.

That move was in response to what the Foreign Office said was a “baseless” decision to expel a British diplomat from Russia on suspicion of spying in November last year.

The expulsion also comes after a major criminal investigation left six members of a Russian proxy spy ring dubbed the “Minions” facing years behind bars for their part in one of the “largest and most complex” enemy operations to be uncovered on UK soil.

Risk

Bulgarians Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, were found guilty at the Old Bailey last week of spying on an “industrial scale”, putting lives and national security at risk.

They will be sentenced in May alongside ringleader Orlin Roussev, 47, his second-in-command Biser Dzhambazov, 43, and Ivan Stoyanov, 33, who admitted their roles.