Moscow has accused two British diplomats of spying and ordered their expulsion within a fortnight, further straining relations with Europe even as discussions to mend ties with the United States continue.
Britain said that the accusations were without merit.
“This is not the first time that Russia has made malicious and baseless accusations against our staff,” a Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement.
The expulsions mark the first instance of Western diplomats being ousted from Russia since Moscow and Washington initiated talks to rebuild staff levels at their respective embassies, which have been reduced by reciprocal expulsions.
This effort was part of President Donald Trump’s attempt to improve relations with the Kremlin, a move that has caused concern among European allies.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, similar expulsions have significantly hampered the operations of Russian embassies in the West and Western missions in Russia.
Russia’s Federal Security Service said that the two diplomats provided false information to gain entry into Russia.
They were found to be conducting “intelligence and subversive work” that threatened Russian security, it said.
In response, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned a representative from the British embassy.
Britain’s continued support of Ukraine’s military and Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s recent statements about putting British boots on the ground and planes in the air in Ukraine as part of a potential peacekeeping force have angered Moscow.
Russian police in February opened a criminal investigation into an alleged assault on a freelance journalist by a person believed to be an employee of the British embassy, an allegation London dismissed as “an interference operation” designed to intimidate legitimate diplomats.
The 23-year-old journalist claimed that she had suffered “physical and moral injury” in the alleged assault, at Vnukovo airport in Moscow.
She had been attempting to interview British diplomats who were arriving at the airport, Russia’s Interior Ministry said.
“While the journalist was performing her professional duties, an unknown man, presumably an employee of the British Embassy in the Russian Federation, who was meeting the delegation, pushed her, causing the girl to lose her balance,” the ministry said.
