The Foreign Office protests Russia's campaign of
harassment against British diplomats.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said:
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.
