Russia’s Federal Security Service on Friday accused six British diplomats of spying and said a decision has been made to withdraw their accreditation.
Russian state TV quoted an official from the security service known as the FSB as saying that they will be expelled. The expulsions come as Prime Minister Keir Starmer visits Washington for talks with President Joe Biden that will include Ukraine’s request to use Western-supplied weapons against targets inside Russia.
Starmer said on his way to the U.S. that Britain does not “seek any conflict with Russia.” “Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia could end this conflict straight away,” he told reporters.
“Ukraine has the right to self-defense and we’ve obviously been absolutely fully supportive of Ukraine’s right to self-defense — we’re providing training capability, as you know. But we don’t seek any conflict with Russia — that’s not our intention in the slightest,” he said.
The FSB said it received documents indicating that the diplomats were sent to Russia by a division of the U.K. Foreign Office “whose main task is to inflict a strategic defeat on our country,” and that they were involved in “intelligence-gathering and subversive activities.”
Russian state TV said in a report that the six diplomats had met with independent media and rights groups that have been declared “foreign agents” — a label the Russian authorities have actively used against organizations and individuals critical of the Kremlin.
The British Embassy in Moscow did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. There was no immediate comment from Britain’s Foreign Office.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in an online statement that “We fully agree with the assessments of the activities of the British so-called diplomats expressed by the Russian FSB. The British Embassy has gone far beyond the limits outlined by the Vienna Conventions.” She said the diplomats were carrying out “subversive actions aimed at causing harm to our people.”
Explusions of diplomats — both Western diplomats working in Russia and Russian diplomats working in Western countries — have become increasingly common since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian news outlet RBC counted last year that Western countries and Japan expelled a total 670 Russian diplomats between the beginning of 2022 and October 2023, while Moscow expelled 346 diplomats in response. According to RBC, it was more than in the previous 20 years combined.
In May the U.K. expelled Russia’s defense attaché in London, alleging he was an undeclared intelligence officer, and closed several Russian diplomatic properties in Britain that it said were being used for spying.
Russia has recently accused six British diplomats of engaging in spying and “subversive activities,” leading to their expulsion from the country. The move comes amid escalating tensions between Russia and Western nations, particularly the United Kingdom.
The Russian government has accused the diplomats of using their diplomatic status as a cover for intelligence gathering and other activities deemed harmful to Russian interests. The British government has denied the allegations, calling them “baseless” and insisting that the diplomats were simply carrying out their official duties.
The expulsion of the British diplomats is just the latest in a series of tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions between Russia and Western countries. In recent years, there have been numerous incidents of alleged espionage and other hostile activities between Russia and countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and others.
The escalating tensions between Russia and Western nations have been fueled by a variety of factors, including Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, its military intervention in Syria, and allegations of Russian interference in Western elections. The poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the UK in 2018 also strained relations between Russia and the UK.
The expulsion of the British diplomats is likely to further strain relations between Russia and the UK, as well as other Western nations. It remains to be seen how the situation will develop in the coming weeks and months, but it is clear that tensions between Russia and the West are at a high point.
In response to the expulsion of its diplomats, the British government has stated that it reserves the right to take further action against Russia. It is likely that this latest incident will only serve to deepen the rift between Russia and Western nations, making diplomatic resolution even more difficult to achieve.
Overall, the accusations of spying and subversive activities against the British diplomats by Russia are a troubling development in an already tense relationship between Russia and Western nations. It remains to be seen how this latest incident will impact diplomatic relations between the two sides in the long term.
