Russia & UK Engaged In Escalating Spy Wars, Diplomatic Expulsions

Russia is seeking to clamp down on Western spying on its soil, amid ongoing tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions especially involving Britain, related to alleged espionage. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) confirmed Monday that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs revoked the accreditation of two British diplomats, accusing them of entering Russia based on false information. They are being booted from the country.

The counterintelligence agency described it had “identified signs of intelligence and subversive work” that the pair had carried out against Russian national security interests. Countries often issue diplomatic cover for intelligence operatives working out of their foreign embassies.

The UK Foreign Office was adamant in rejecting the basis of the accusations: “This is not the first time that Russia has made malicious and baseless accusations against our staff,” it said. But this didn’t seem so ‘direct’ a denial speaking to whether the two were spies or not.

Britain had expelled a Russian diplomat on similar grounds last month, and as a response to Moscow expelling a UK diplomat in November 2024.

And just last week three Bulgarian nationals were convicted in a London court for carrying out “industrial-scale” spying for Russia. The Guardian has detailed the case as follows:

Three Bulgarian nationals accused of spying for Russia have been found guilty of espionage charges in a trial that heard how they were involved in a string of plots around Europe directed by a fugitive based in Moscow.

After more than 32 hours of deliberations, a jury at the Old Bailey reached unanimous verdicts on Katrin Ivanova, 33, a lab technician, Vanya Gaberova, 30, a beautician, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, a painter and decorator, all of whom were living in London before their arrest.

The three were convicted for being junior members of a spy ring that was ultimately directed by Jan Marsalek, an Austrian businessman who had fled to Russia in 2020 after a company he helped to run collapsed amid a €1.9bn (£1.6bn) fraud.

Marsalek directed the hostile surveillance of Christo Grozev – an investigative journalist who had helped implicate Russian spies in the poisoning of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny – in Bulgaria, Austria and Spain. All three defendants were involved in the operation.

Apparently they also set up an operation to steal mobile phone numbers of Ukrainian troops believed to be training at a US barracks in Stuttgart, Germany. UK media reports say they utilized military-grade snooping and electronic equipment.

Britain believes all of this was ultimately at the direction of Russian intelligence. So just as Moscow’s relations with Washington improve, relations with London keep growing more and more hostile and distant.

There was also the recent case of a British mercenary being captured by Russian forces in Kursk. The UK military veteran was given a 19-year prison sentence for fighting alongside Ukrainian forces while invading Russian soil. A Moscow court dubbed him a ‘terrorist’ and not a soldier who would have been afforded protections under the Geneva Convention.