By Guy Faulconbridge and Mark Trevelyan
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia said it was expelling a British diplomat on Tuesday for alleged spying, in the latest blow to the already dire state of relations between the two countries.
The FSB security service said the diplomat, whose photo was splashed across TV news bulletins, had intentionally provided false information when he entered the country.
“During counterintelligence work, the Russian Federal Security Service has discovered an undeclared British intelligence presence under the cover of the national embassy in Moscow,” it said.
“At the same time, the Russian FSB has discovered signs of the said diplomat conducting intelligence and subversive work that threatens the security of the Russian Federation,” it said in a statement.
It named him as Edward Wilkes and said he was a second secretary, a relatively junior diplomatic rank.
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was unaware of the reported diplomatic expulsion. There was no immediate comment from Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The British embassy in Moscow did not respond to a request for comment.
The TASS news agency cited Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying that the ministry had summoned the British ambassador, a step that host governments often use to express a strong protest.
The envoy, Nigel Casey, was shown by Russian state media arriving at the foreign ministry in Moscow.
According to the FSB, the British diplomat was a replacement for one of six British diplomats expelled earlier this year, also on espionage charges.
Reacting to the earlier expulsions in September, Britain rejected the spying allegations against its diplomats as “malicious and completely baseless” and said Russia’s behaviour was completely unacceptable.
Relations between Britain and Russia have plunged to post-Cold War lows since the start of the Ukraine war. Britain has joined successive waves of sanctions against Russia and provided arms to Ukraine.
Russia said Ukraine fired British Storm Shadow cruise missiles at its territory last week for the first time. President Vladimir Putin cited that, and the launching of U.S. ATACMS ballistic missiles by Ukraine, as the reason Russia responded by launching a new hypersonic missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Nov. 21.
(Reporting by Reuters, writing by Olzhas Auyezov and Mark Trevelyan; additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill in London; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Alex Richardson)
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