The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that it would expel the British defense attaché from the country, in retaliation for the British government’s expulsion of a Russian military attaché last week.
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Russia would take further, unspecified retaliatory measures due to the “unfriendly” measures taken by London.
The ministry summoned a British diplomat to inform him that the commissioner had been declared “persona non grata,” according to a person familiar with the matter. statement.
Britain announced on May 8 that it was ordering the Russian defense attaché to leave, describing him as an “undeclared” military intelligence officer.
A Russian statement said the ministry considered the order to be a “politically motivated action of a clearly Russophobic nature that has caused irreparable damage to bilateral relations.”
British diplomat Captain Adrian Coghill, a naval officer who served as assistant military attache in Moscow more than a decade ago, was asked to leave within a week.
British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps called Russia’s action a “desperate act” in a brief initial reaction. release on X social media platform.
Shapps said that while Russia’s defense attaché in the UK “acted as spies, the only issue between Putin and us is that they embodied the UK’s unwavering support for the illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine”.
Since invading Ukraine in February 2022, triggering one of Europe’s bloodiest and longest conflicts since World War II, Moscow has habitually denounced as “Russophobia” what it sees as hostile measures. Ukraine’s relations with Britain and the West have become strained as a result of the hostilities. Western countries have provided large amounts of aid, including weapons, to Ukraine.
Last week, Britain closed a number of Russian diplomatic facilities in the country, in addition to expelling Russian defense attache Colonel Maxim Elovik.
The government has accused Russia’s domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), of carrying out a range of “malign activities” in the UK and Europe, including hacking and leaking US-related trade documents and targeting British lawmakers through malicious email campaigns.
Home Secretary James Cleverly told parliament the government announced the measures “to signal to Russia that we will not tolerate this clear escalation”.
Cleverly also said the UK would impose new visa restrictions on Russian diplomats, limiting the time they can stay in the UK.
Megan Specia Contributed reporting.
