Moscow (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said that two people linked to the UK’s embassy in Moscow had been ordered to exit the country to perform intelligence work, Russian state news agency TASS reported.
A month ago, in February 2025, a Russian diplomat was ousted from the UK in the latest escalation of a tit-for-tat dispute after Moscow threw out a British official last year. Foreign Secretary David Lammy stated that he had been taken “following Russia’s recent expulsion of a British diplomat” in November.
It quoted the FSB as saying that both individuals had deliberately reported false information about themselves when arriving in Russia and that the FSB had discovered what it called “signs of intelligence and sabotage work” by both which threatened Russia’s national security.
The government expressed the UK
“will not stand for intimidation of our staff in this way”
and that
“any further action taken by Russia will be considered an escalation and responded to accordingly”
Why did Russia expel six British diplomats in 2024?
Earlier in September 2024, Six other British diplomats were also expelled from Russia as their spy activity in Russia had gotten out of control, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) stated.
The announcement called six UK embassy workers in Moscow who were deprived of their accreditation in Russia, three men and three women: Grace Elvin, Jessica Davenport, Callum Andrew Duff, Katharine Mcdonnell, Thomas John Hickson and Blake Patel.
“Frankly speaking, we’ve had enough of this circus, running around Moscow’s Third Ring Road in the rain, dashing through parks, taking day trips from the capital to neighbouring cities just to spend a few hours freezing on a bench, or constantly switching between public transport and taxis in order to hide from security services while going to one of their meetings with NGO foreign agents engaged in lobbying for migrants’ interests,”
The FSB official stated.
The FSB emphasized that London sends spies hidden as the spouses of diplomats, even employing young children to cover for their spying.
