Russia has expelled six British diplomats in Moscow after it accused the envoys of spying and acts of sabotage.
The FSB security service said on Friday it had documents showing that a Foreign Office department in London was overseeing what it described as an “escalation of the political and military situation”, including plans for the strategic defeat of Moscow’s forces in Ukraine.
The move came after Vladimir Putin warned Britain and the United States they would be “at war” with Russia if they handed permission to Ukraine to use Western long-range missiles to strike targets across the border.
“Thus, the facts revealed give grounds to consider the activities of British diplomats sent to Moscow by the directorate as threatening the security of the Russian Federation,” the FSB said in a statement.
“In this connection, on the basis of documents provided by the Federal Security Service of Russia and as a response to the numerous unfriendly steps taken by London, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, in cooperation with the agencies concerned, has terminated the accreditation of six members of the political department of the British Embassy in Moscow in whose actions signs of spying and sabotage were found,” it said.
Pro-Kremlin propagandists published details on Friday of what they claimed was a UK Foreign Office department used to “wage a hybrid war with Russia”.
Rybar, an influential Russian war blogger, named senior figures like Sir Tim Barrow, the national security adviser, and Sir Philip Barton, the Foreign Office’s most senior civil servant, as being part of the so-called the Information Threats and Influence Directorate.
Its channel on the Telegram messaging app said they were involved in the dissemination of pro-Western information throughout Russia, where the media is mostly controlled by Putin’s Kremlin.
The six diplomats expelled from Moscow were named by Russian state television, which also broadcast their photographs.
‘The English did not take our hints... so we decided to expel them’
“The English did not take our hints about the need to stop this practice (of carrying out intelligence activities inside Russia), so we decided to expel these six to begin with,” an FSB employee told the Rossiya-24 state TV channel.
The FSB threatened to expel other British diplomats if they were found to be involved in the alleged activities.
Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesman, told the Tass news agency that the British embassy in Moscow had gone beyond diplomatic convention.
The Telegraph has contacted the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for comment.
Britain has previously expelled Russian diplomats it has accused of being involved in spying and espionage.
Maxim Elovik, its former defence attache in the country, was thrown out as part of sanctions introduced by James Cleverly, the former Home Secretary, to crack down on “malign” Russian activity in Britain and Europe.