{"id":371130,"date":"2026-01-15T10:15:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T10:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/371130\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T10:15:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T10:15:06","slug":"british-diplomat-expelled-from-russia-after-being-accused-of-being-a-spy-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/371130\/","title":{"rendered":"British diplomat expelled from Russia after being accused of being a spy | Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

A British diplomat has been expelled from Russia<\/a> after being accused of being a spy.<\/p>\n

The diplomat, who was not named, has two weeks to leave the country, the Russian foreign ministry said, after it received information \u201cregarding the affiliation of a diplomatic employee at the embassy with the British secret service\u201d.<\/p>\n

A translation of a post on the Telegram channel of the FSB, Russia\u2019s domestic intelligence agency, said the British charg\u00e9e d\u2019affaires, Danae Dholakia, had been summoned to be informed the diplomat was being expelled.<\/p>\n

Saying Moscow would not \u201ctolerate the activities of undeclared British intelligence officers in Russia\u201d, the ministry warned Russia would respond decisively if the UK \u201cescalates the situation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA warning was also issued that if London escalates the situation, the Russian side will give a decisive \u2018mirror\u2019 response,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Russia and the US have both pledged to rebuild staffing levels at their embassies early last year, part of a charm offensive on Moscow by the US president, Donald Trump, which was roundly criticised in Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both Russia and the UK have periodically expelled each other\u2019s diplomats from the country since the start of the war in Ukraine. Most recently, Russia expelled a UK diplomat and the spouse of another in March last year, claiming the pair had been spies.<\/p>\n

In response, the UK expelled a Russian diplomat, with the then foreign secretary, David Lammy, accusing Moscow of waging a \u201crelentless and unacceptable campaign of intimidation<\/a>\u201d against British embassy staff. He also criticised Russia\u2019s \u201crepeated attempts to threaten UK security\u201d.<\/p>\n

The UK Foreign Office has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A British diplomat has been expelled from Russia after being accused of being a spy. The diplomat, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-371130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}