Russia declares a UK diplomat persona non grata, ordering his expulsion within two weeks and warning London against retaliatory actions.
MOSCOW: Russia has ordered the expulsion of a United Kingdom diplomat it accuses of being an undercover intelligence officer.
The Russian foreign ministry summoned Britain’s charge d’affaires to lodge a “strong protest” over the allegations.
It stated that “one of the embassy’s diplomatic staff belongs to the UK’s intelligence services”.
“The individual’s accreditation is being revoked. He is required to leave the Russian Federation within two weeks,” the ministry said.
The FSB security service identified the man as Gareth Samuel Davies, listed as the embassy’s second secretary.
Moscow warned Britain not to “escalate the situation”.
It pledged a “firm symmetrical response” should London retaliate with its own expulsion.
Relations between London and Moscow were already at a historic low before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions over espionage claims have occurred repeatedly over the last decade.
Tensions have been plagued by spying allegations for decades.
In 2006, Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium in London in a hit British investigators blamed on Russian services.
In 2018, the UK said Russian double agent Sergei Skripal was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury.
One member of the public died after handling the discarded perfume bottle used in the attack.
That incident triggered the largest Western expulsion of Russian diplomats, alleged to be spies, in decades.
