The United Kingdom denounces “malicious and baseless accusations” after the FSB said that it “identified signs of intelligence and subversive work” carried out by civil servants.
Russia accused two British espionage diplomats and ordered them to leave the country within two weeks, the last of a series of Tit-tray expulsions On an alleged espionage.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had revoked the accreditation of diplomats, accusing it of providing false information when entering Russia.
The counter-espionage agency also declared that it had “identified signs of intelligence and subversive work” that the two staff had carried out, harming Russian security.
The announcement came as diplomatic relations Between Russia and the United Kingdom continues to deteriorate following the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by the former in February 2022.
Friday, a jury in London was sentenced Three Bulgarian nationals Based in the United Kingdom to spy on “industrial scale” for Russia.
Last week, a Russian courtyard Also sentenced to 19 years in prison, a British man captured while he was fighting for Ukraine in the Russian Kursk region.
And in early February, the United Kingdom said it would revoke the accreditation of a Russian diplomat, in retaliation for a similar decision made by Russia in November of last year.
The FSB did not identify the two diplomats by name, but said it was the second secretary of the British Embassy and the husband of the first secretary, who came to the country “under the cover of the National Embassy”.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also summoned a representative of the British Embassy in the context of allegations.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the United Kingdom of Foreign Affairs denounced the last expulsion and the charges of spy on Russia.
“This is not the first time that Russia has made malicious accusations and bases against our staff,” said the spokesman.
The intelligence scandals throughout the quarter of the Russian President Vladimir Putin in power have set diplomatic ties between Russia and the United Kingdom.
In 2006, the United Kingdom accused Moscow of being behind the assassination of the former Russian agent and critic of the Kremlin Alexander Litvinenko in a poisoning attack in London.
And in 2018, the United Kingdom and its allies expelled dozens of officials from the Russian Embassy who, according to them, were spies on the attempted poisoning of the former double agent, Sergei SkripalWith the nervous agent of the Soviet era Novichok.
Russia has denied any involvement.
