During the past twelve months, Russia has pursued an increasingly aggressive and coordinated campaign of harassment against British diplomats, pumping out malicious and completely baseless accusations about their work.
Russia’s expulsion this week of a British diplomat and diplomatic spouse is yet another escalation. The accusations made against these individuals are entirely false, fabricated in order to justify their increasing harassment of UK diplomats.
It is clear that the Russian state is actively seeking to drive the British Embassy in Moscow towards closure and has no regard for the dangerous escalatory impact of this.
Summoning the Russian Ambassador today, a senior Foreign Office official made clear that the UK will not stand for intimidation of British embassy staff and their families. Consequently, we are taking immediate reciprocal action, revoking accreditation for a Russian diplomat and a diplomatic spouse.
We do not take this decision lightly, but we have always made clear to Russia that if they escalate, we will take reciprocal action. The depths to which Russia sinks can only be met through strength.
Despite the extremely difficult bilateral relations caused by Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and long-running campaign of hostile action against the UK, the UK Government believes that maintaining diplomatic channels of communication, and our respective diplomatic missions, is important. It is deeply disappointing that this is continually made more difficult by unprovoked action from Russia.
We have drawn a line under this incident and demand Russia do the same. Any further action taken by Russia will be considered an escalation and responded to accordingly.
