Sawt Falasteen - Russia accuses UK diplomat of spying in fresh diplomatic spat

Britain has rejected the claims one of its embassy employees was a spy, the latest in a string of espionage allegations that come with relations between the two countries running at an all-time low.

The spat also comes a week after Ukraine was given permission to start firing UK-supplied long-range missiles at Russia -- drawing scorn and threats of direct military retaliation from President Vladimir Putin -- and after Russia arrested a British man captured fighting for Ukraine.

The foreign ministry in Moscow summoned British ambassador Nigel Casey after the FSB security services said they had uncovered a British spy.

The FSB said the British diplomat, identified as the embassy's second secretary, appeared to have carried out "intelligence and subversive work, threatening the security of the Russian Federation."

"Moscow will not tolerate the activities of undeclared British intelligence staff on its territory," the foreign ministry said in a statement, saying it was expelling him for lying on his accreditation and visa application.

Footage broadcast by state media showed the ambassador being surrounded by state media journalists after he arrived at the foreign ministry in central Moscow.

- Spy scandals -

The UK government rejected the allegations and pledged a response.

"This is not the first time that Russia has made malicious and baseless accusations against our staff. We will respond in due course," said a foreign office spokesperson.

London and Moscow have expelled several of each other's diplomats on spying allegations in recent years.

The FSB said the man expelled on Tuesday was a replacement for one of six British officials that Russia had kicked out earlier this year, also on espionage charges.

Relations between the two capitals have been repeatedly strained by intelligence scandals and accusations throughout Putin's quarter-century in power.

The UK has accused Moscow of being behind the 2006 assassination of former Russian agent and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in a London poisoning attack.

And in 2018, Britain and its allies expelled dozens of Russian embassy officials they said were spies over the attempted poisoning of former double agent, Sergei Skripal, with Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.

Skripal, who lived in exile in London, survived the attack but a British civilian died after touching a contaminated perfume bottle, triggering uproar in London.

- British fighter arrested -

In a symbolic move, Russia's foreign ministry announced it was banning a string of cabinet ministers from entering the country over what it called London's "Russophobic" policies.

Among those targeted were Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, interior minister Yvette Cooper and the education, environment, health and energy ministers.

Since ordering troops into Ukraine, Russia has added hundreds of Western politicians, analysts, journalists and business leaders to its so-called "stop list", which Moscow sees as its answer to asset freezes and travel bans levied by the West.

A court in Russia's western Kursk region also confirmed Tuesday that a British citizen accused of fighting for Ukraine had been captured and arrested.

James Scott Rhys Anderson, 22, was ordered remanded in custody on allegations he had "participated in armed hostilities on the territory of the Kursk region".

It was the first official confirmation from Russia of Anderson's arrest, following an unverified video that was published on pro-Kremlin Telegram channels over the weekend.

The Leninsky court in Kursk said he was suspected of "committing a set of particularly serious offences that post a danger to society", though did not say exactly what he was being charged with.

Russia considers foreigners travelling to fight in Ukraine as "mercenaries", enabling prosecution under its criminal code rather than treating them as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.

In 2022, a court in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine sentenced two British fighters to death for fighting for Ukraine, although they were later released in a prisoner of war exchange.

O.Salim--SF-PST