Russia announced the expulsions hours ahead of planned talks in Washington between British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Joe Biden on the next steps in supporting Ukraine, centring on whether to allow Western missiles to be used to hit targets in Russia.
Meanwhile, Britain’s embassy in Moscow and the UK government did not make any comment immediately,
On September 12, Russia President Vladimir Putin said that the West would be directly fighting with Russia if it allowed Ukraine to strike Russian territory with Western-made long-range missiles, a move he said would alter the nature and scope of the conflict.
Russia said it had documents showing that a British foreign office department in London responsible for Eastern Europe and Central Asia was coordinating what it called “the escalation of the political and military situation” and was tasked with ensuring Russia’s strategic defeat in its war against Ukraine.
“The facts revealed give grounds to consider the activities of British diplomats sent to Moscow by the directorate as threatening the security of the Russian Federation,” the FSB said in a statement.
On the basis of documents provided by the Federal Security Service of Russia and as a response to the numerous unfriendly steps taken by London, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, in cooperation with the agencies concerned, has terminated the accreditation of six members of the political department of the British Embassy in Moscow in whose actions signs of spying and sabotage were found,” it said.
The six diplomats were named on Russian state TV, which also showed photographs of them. Surveillance footage of them was also released to Russian media, including covert video surveillance of a British diplomat meeting someone.
The English did not take our hints about the need to stop this practice (of carrying out intelligence activities inside Russia), so we decided to expel these six to begin with,” an FSB employee whose identity was hidden told the Rossiya-24 state TV channel.
The FSB said Russia would ask other British diplomats to go home early if they were found to be engaged in similar activity.
