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Russia has expelled another British diplomat after its FSB security service accused a Moscow embassy employee of providing false information when applying for diplomatic accreditation, claiming it had seen “signs of intelligence and subversive work”.
The announcement on Tuesday is the latest in a long list of expulsions of embassy staff by the UK and Russia in recent years.
Relations between both sides have deteriorated over Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, London’s support for Kyiv and a series of incidents such as the use by Russian agents of the novichok nerve agent in an assassination attempt on British soil.
The FSB’s statement, which concerns the second secretary of the political department in the British embassy, claimed the man had “intentionally indicated false data when obtaining permission to enter our country, thus violating Russian law”.
The statement did not say what the allegedly false information concerned. The FSB also said it had seen “signs of intelligence and subversive work threatening the security of the Russian Federation have been revealed”.
The FSB named the staff member and state media outlets shared his picture. The staff member’s diplomatic accreditation had been cancelled, the agency said, meaning he would have to leave Russia in the next two weeks.
A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said: “This is not the first time that Russia has made malicious and baseless accusations against our staff. We will respond in due course.”
Russia’s foreign ministry summoned the British ambassador to discuss the expulsion, the Tass state news agency reported, citing foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
The FSB said the man had arrived in Russia to replace one of six British embassy staff expelled from Moscow in August and September this year, also following accusations of espionage that Britain described at the time as “baseless”.
The six people were also accused of meeting workers of Russian NGOs and independent media considered to be “foreign agents” by the Kremlin, such as the Nobel Prize-winning Novaya Gazeta newspaper, according to an FSB officer quoted on Russian state television at the time.
In May, the UK expelled Russia’s defence attaché in London for the first time since the cold war, describing him as an “undeclared military intelligence officer”, and closed several Russian diplomatic facilities, citing “malign activity”.
Diplomats attached to other western embassies in Moscow have also been subject to expulsion orders, and other western capitals have taken measures against Russian diplomatic staff in their countries.
Russia maintains a list of countries it considers officially “unfriendly” and occasionally responds to western sanctions by issuing entry bans to reporters, politicians and other individuals from those countries.
The UK government is considering its response, which could include a tit-for-tat expulsion.
On Tuesday, Moscow also barred several Cabinet ministers from entering Russia. Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, chancellor Rachel Reeves, home secretary Yvette Cooper and business secretary Jonathan Reynolds were among 30 Britons placed under fresh sanctions by Russia.
British officials believe the expulsion and the latest designations are a response to the UK last week finally awarding Ukraine approval to use long-range Storm Shadow missiles inside Russian territory.
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