Russia on Thursday ordered a British diplomat to leave the country over alleged espionage, a charge the U.K. dismissed as “baseless.”
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) accused the embassy staff member of working for British intelligence but did not provide any evidence. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that the diplomat’s accreditation had been revoked and that the individual must leave Russia within two weeks. Danae Dholakia, the U.K.’s chargé d’affaires in Russia, was summoned to the ministry in Moscow to receive the notice.
“Moscow will not tolerate undeclared British intelligence activities on Russian soil,” the ministry said, adding that it would respond in kind to any retaliatory measures from London.
The U.K. Foreign Office said it was “carefully considering” a response and condemned Russia’s expulsion as part of a pattern of “malicious and baseless” accusations against British diplomats. “Targeting British diplomats in this way undermines the basic conditions necessary for diplomatic missions to function,” the office said.
Relations between Russia and NATO countries have deteriorated to Cold War-era lows, with multiple rounds of mutual diplomat expulsions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In March 2025, Moscow expelled two other British diplomats on spying allegations, which the U.K. also rejected as false.
