- FSB security service reportedly found evidence that diplomats were spying
Six British diplomats have been expelled by Russia’s FSB security service, which claims to have found evidence that the envoys were involved in espionage and sabotage operations.
The British Embassy in Moscow did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the diplomats – from the British Embassy’s political department – are said to have left Russia in early September.
Russia’s state television channel Zvezda, owned by the Ministry of Defense, showed footage of the diplomats leaving Moscow and bluntly claimed they were “spies.”
“British embassy staff expelled from Russia turned out to be spies,” the channel said. “Our special services found signs of intelligence and subversive work.”
The FSB, the main successor to Russia’s KGB, said it had documents showing that a department of the British Foreign Office in London responsible for Eastern Europe and Central Asia was responsible for what it called “the escalation of the political and military situation” and was tasked with ensuring Russia suffered a strategic defeat in the war against Ukraine.
“In this connection… the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia has withdrawn the accreditation of six members of the political department of the British Embassy in Moscow, whose actions showed evidence of espionage and sabotage,” the report said.
The announcement comes as Britain is seen as leading Western efforts to allow Ukraine to deploy long-range missiles on targets deep inside Russia, starting with the British Storm Shadow missiles.
Sir Keir Starmer will discuss this prospect with US President Joe Biden later today.
Diplomats were shown loading a car before being evicted from the embassy
Residence of the British Ambassador in Moscow, Russia
The expulsions come at a time when the British embassy in Moscow, led by Ambassador Nigel Casey, already has its lowest number of diplomats in Moscow in decades.
“The British did not understand our hints about the need to stop this practice (conducting intelligence activities in Russia), so we decided to expel these six initially,” an FSB official told state television channel Rossiya-24.
The FSB said Russia would ask other British diplomats to go home early if they were found to be involved in similar activities.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted by state news agency TASS as saying that the activities of the British embassy in Moscow went far beyond diplomatic conventions and accused the embassy of deliberate actions aimed at harming the Russian population.
TV Zvezda said: ‘Intelligence officers always work at the embassy of any country, and this is standard diplomatic practice.
‘The other thing is that now – with global security at risk – the embassy in Moscow, and more broadly the Foreign Office itself, instead of building a dialogue with Russia, has turned into an arm of British intelligence.’
The television station added: ‘The FSB does not rule out that withdrawing the accreditation of six British diplomats is just the first step.
“The agency says it continues to consider staff at the embassy in Moscow to be involved in British intelligence activities.”
The expulsions come at a time when the British embassy in Moscow, led by Ambassador Nigel Casey, already has its lowest number of diplomats in Moscow in decades.