Russia’s FSB security service has revoked the accreditation of six British diplomats in Moscow whose actions it said showed signs of spying and sabotage work.
The FSB, the main successor agency to the Soviet KGB, said on Friday 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.
“Thus, 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.
It added: “In this connection, 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.”
The six diplomats were named on Russian state TV, which also showed photographs of them.
An FSB employee told Rossiya-24: “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.”
The FSB said Russia would ask other British diplomats to go home early if they were found to be engaged in similar activity.
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The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, was cited by the state TASS news agency as saying the activities of the British embassy in Moscow had gone beyond diplomatic convention, accusing it of carrying out deliberate activity designed to harm the Russian people.
