Britain expels Russian diplomats in tit-for-tat move with blast at Kremlin’s ‘aggressive’ harassment of UK embassy staff in Moscow

By DAVID WILCOCK, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE

Published: 17:21 GMT, 12 March 2025 | Updated: 17:24 GMT, 12 March 2025

The UK has expelled a Russian diplomat and a diplomatic spouse in response to an ‘increasingly aggressive and co-ordinated campaign of harassment’ against British officials in Moscow.

The move is a tit-for-tat retaliation to a similar move by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government on Monday.

The UK pair were accused of engaging in intelligence activity under cover of the embassy in the Russian capital – a claim dismissed as ‘malicious and baseless’ by the UK.

The Foreign Office said it had summoned Russian ambassador Andrei Kelin to make clear ‘the UK will not stand for intimidation of British embassy staff and their families’.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: ‘Today we are taking immediate action in direct response to Russia’s pernicious targeting of British diplomats and their families.

‘We will not tolerate the Kremlin’s relentless and unacceptable campaign of intimidation, nor their repeated attempts to threaten UK security.’

The move is a tit-for-tat retaliation to a similar move by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government on Monday.

The Foreign Office said it had summoned Russian ambassador Andrei Kelin to make clear ‘the UK will not stand for intimidation of British embassy staff and their families’.

The British diplomats have been ordered to leave Russia within two weeks, the Russian news agency Tass said, citing the country’s FSB security agency. 

It is the latest in a series of tit-for-tat expulsions involving the UK’s embassy in Moscow and the Russian mission in London.

In February the Foreign Office stripped a Russian diplomat of their accreditation, with Mr Lammy saying the the UK will be ‘unapologetic’ in standing up to Mr Putin.

That move was in response to what the Foreign Office said was a ‘baseless’ decision to expel a British diplomat from Russia on suspicion of spying in November last year.

The expulsion also comes after a major criminal investigation left six members of a Russian proxy spy ring dubbed the ‘Minions’ facing years behind bars for their part in one of the ‘largest and most complex’ enemy operations to be uncovered on UK soil.

Bulgarians Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, were found guilty at the Old Bailey last week of spying on an ‘industrial scale’, putting lives and national security at risk.

They will be sentenced in May alongside ringleader Orlin Roussev, 47, his second-in-command Biser Dzhambazov, 43, and Ivan Stoyanov, 33, who admitted their roles.

:
Britain expels Russian diplomats in tit-for-tat move with blast at Kremlin’s ‘aggressive’ harassment of UK embassy staff in Moscow

***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk