Russia stated it was expelling a British diplomat for alleged spying as tensions between London and Moscow rose after Ukraine’s current use of British weapons to strike deeper into Russia.
The FSB, Russia’s home intelligence company, introduced on Tuesday that it had acted on paperwork accusing a British diplomat of partaking in “reconnaissance and subversive actions that threaten the nation’s safety”.
The FSB claimed that the British diplomat “deliberately offered false data when making use of for entry into Russia, thereby violating Russian legislation”. Russian media reported that the diplomat had been given a two-week deadline to go away the nation.
In line with the FSB, the British diplomat, whose photograph was splashed throughout Russian TV information bulletins, was a substitute for considered one of six UK diplomats expelled in August, additionally over accusations of espionage. The British Overseas, Commonwealth and Improvement Workplace (FCDO) stated on the time that the accusations have been baseless.
The Russian overseas ministry stated that it had summoned the British ambassador in Moscow, Nigel Casey. There was no quick remark from the FCDO.
Relations between Britain and Russia plunged to a brand new low final week after Britain agreed to permit Ukraine to make use of Storm Shadow missiles on targets inside Russia. The inexperienced mild got here days after Joe Biden, the US president, agreed to do the identical for the same American long-range Atacms weapon.
The choice to approve the strikes was made in response to the deployment of greater than 10,000 North Korean troops on Russia’s border with Ukraine, which UK and US officers warned was a big escalation of the close to three-year battle.
Kyiv has since used Storm Shadow missiles to strike a command headquarters within the village of Maryno within the Kursk area. On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that Britain had despatched dozens extra of the missiles to Ukraine a number of weeks in the past.
Final week, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, intensified the already fraught standoff with the west by launching an experimental ballistic missile at a navy goal within the Ukrainian metropolis of Dnipro. He additionally stated that Moscow “had the appropriate” to strike western international locations that offered Kyiv with weapons used in opposition to Russian targets.
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Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the UK and Russia have periodically engaged in tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats, reflecting strained relations. In Might, Britain expelled a senior Russian defence attache, accusing them of working as an undeclared navy intelligence officer. In retaliation, Moscow ordered the British defence attache to go away Russia.
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