Russia expels British diplomat over spying allegations
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $1.44 a week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $5.77 plus GST every four weeks. After 52 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia on Monday expelled a British diplomat over accusations of spying that were rejected as “complete nonsense” by the U.K., a second such move this year that comes as tensions spiral between Moscow and the West.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the country’s top domestic security and counterintelligence agency, said in a statement that the diplomat was “carrying out intelligence and subversive activities that threaten the security of the Russian Federation.”
The FSB charged that the diplomat had sought to gather “sensitive information” about the Russian economy in “unofficial meetings” with Russian experts, without providing further details. It said he was ordered to leave Russia within two weeks.
A spokesperson for the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said in a statement that “the accusations made today by Russia against our diplomats are complete nonsense.”
“Russia has pursued an increasingly aggressive and coordinated campaign of harassment against British diplomats, pumping out malicious and completely baseless accusations about their work,” the spokesperson said. “The UK does not stand for intimidation of British embassy staff and their families.”
The move marks the second expulsion of a British diplomat by Russia this year, following another such move in January that the U.K. also dismissed as “baseless.” The British government responded in February by revoking the accreditation of a Russian diplomat.
In March 2025, Moscow expelled two British diplomats based in Moscow over spying allegations that the U.K. also dismissed as false.
Russia and NATO allies have carried out multiple rounds of mutual expulsions of diplomats as relations have sunk to the lowest levels since the Cold War after the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.