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Two people connected to the British embassy in Moscow have been ordered to leave the country by the Russian authorities, which claimed they had been performing intelligence work.
The British government hit back by accusing Russia of making “malicious and baseless accusations”.
Citing Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the state news agency Tass identified the two individuals who had been expelled as a second secretary of the British embassy and the spouse of another British diplomat.
It named the two people and accused them of deliberately declaring false information about themselves when entering the country.
They have been given two weeks to leave, according to the Russian government, which accused them of “intelligence and subversive activities”.
The FSB had uncovered what it called “signs of intelligence and sabotage work” by both that threatened Russia’s national security, Tass added.
A spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office said: “This is not the first time that Russia has made malicious and baseless accusations against our staff.”
The Russian government posted a video on X on Monday morning showing what it said was a representative of the British embassy being summoned to the foreign affairs ministry.
The move appears to the latest in a series of tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats by Russia and the UK.
Britain expelled a Russian diplomat last month with the foreign secretary, David Lammy, saying that action had been taken “following Russia’s recent expulsion of a British diplomat” in November.
Russia had accused the British diplomat of giving false information and spying.
The expulsion was announced 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.
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The Bulgarians Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir 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 the ringleader, Orlin Roussev, 47; his second-in-command, Biser Dzhambazov, 43; and Ivan Stoyanov, 33, who admitted their roles.
In January, the Guardian reported on how Russian diplomats accessed a private area of parliament in a major security breach shortly before Christmas that alarmed security officials and prompted private warnings from the speakers of both houses.
A number of UK politicians and journalists have also been barred from entering Russia since the start of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Dozens of others, including the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, and other cabinet members, were also added by Russia to a so-called “stop list”.
