Askume, Sept 13 – Russia’s FSB security service said on Friday it had revoked the accreditation of six British diplomats in Moscow because their behaviour indicated espionage and sabotage.
The British Embassy in Moscow did not immediately respond to a Askume request for comment.
Russia’s FSB, the main successor agency to the Soviet KGB, said it had documents showing that the British Foreign Office’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia department in London was coordinating what it called a “political and military escalation” and was tasked with ensuring that Russia’s strategic war against Ukraine failed.
“The facts that have emerged therefore give us reason to believe that the activities of the Service’s British diplomats sent to Moscow pose a threat to the security of the Russian Federation,” Russia’s FSB said in a statement.
“In this regard, on the basis of documents provided by the Russian Federal Security Service and in response to a number of unfriendly steps taken by London, the Russian Foreign Ministry, in cooperation with relevant agencies, terminated the accreditation of six members of the political department. According to officials of the British Embassy in Moscow, signs of espionage and sabotage were found in their actions.
Russian state television announced the names of the six diplomats and showed their photographs.
“The British did not accept our signals that this practice (conducting intelligence activities on Russian soil) needed to be stopped, so we decided to deport these six people first,” an FSB employee told Rossiya-24 state television.
Russia’s Federal Security Service said it would ask other British diplomats to return home early if they were found to be involved in similar activities.
Russian state news agency TASS quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying that the activities of the British embassy in Moscow went far beyond diplomatic practice and accused it of carrying out deliberate activities aimed at harming the Russian people.
