Global Courant
Russia’s Federal Security Service on Friday accused six British diplomats of espionage and said it had decided to revoke their accreditation.
Russian state television quoted an FSB security service official as saying they would 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 in Russia.
Starmer said on his way to the US that Britain “does not seek conflict with Russia.” “Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia can end this conflict immediately,” he told reporters.
“Ukraine has the right to self-defense and we have of course fully supported Ukraine’s right to self-defense — we provide training opportunities, as you know. But we are not seeking conflict with Russia — that is absolutely not our intention,” he said.
The FSB said it had received documents showing that the diplomats had been sent to Russia by a department of the British 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.”
Based on the documents and “in response to numerous unfriendly steps by London,” the Russian Foreign Ministry revoked the diplomats’ accreditation, the FSB said, without identifying them. It warned that if other diplomats carry out “similar actions,” the agency will demand “early termination of their missions” to Russia.
Russian state television reported in a report that the six diplomats had met with independent media and human rights organizations that have been declared “foreign agents” — a label 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 the British Foreign Office.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman 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 set by the Vienna Conventions.” She said the diplomats “carried out subversive actions aimed at causing harm to our people.”
Expulsions 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 last year counted that Western countries and Japan expelled a total of 670 Russian diplomats between early 2022 and October 2023, while Moscow expelled 346 diplomats in response. According to RBC, that was more than in the previous 20 years combined.
In May, the United Kingdom expelled Russia’s defense attaché from London, claiming he was a secret intelligence officer. It also closed several Russian diplomatic offices in Britain that it said were being used for espionage.
