Vladimir Putin has banned senior members of the British Government from travelling to Russia as diplomatic relations plunged to a new low.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Cabinet office minister Pat McFadden and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood were among those condemned by the Kremlin over “reckless policies” and “anti-Russian activities”.
Britain had earlier vowed to respond to Russia’s “malicious and baseless” claims that a diplomat was spying in Moscow.
Russia’s state security service, the FSB, said the embassy employee arrived in Moscow in August to replace one of the six UK diplomats who were thrown out on espionage charges.
The six people were accused of meeting with workers of Russian NGOs and independent media considered to be “foreign agents” by the Kremlin, such as the Nobel Prize-winning Novaya Gazeta newspaper, according to an FSB officer quoted on Russian state television at the time.
Tuesday’s expulsion is the latest sign of the collapse in relations between London and Moscow, fuelled by the war in Ukraine and military support for Kyiv.
Britain last week gave Ukraine permission to fire long-range Storm Shadow missiles at Russian targets, prompting fury from Moscow.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “This is not the first time that Russia has made malicious and baseless accusations against our staff. We will respond in due course.”
The FSB claimed the British diplomat provided false information to enter the country.
It said it had found evidence the diplomat was involved in “reconnaissance and subversive work that threatens the security of the Russian Federation”.
The Foreign Office at the time said Russia‘s accusation that those diplomats were spies was “baseless” and that the expulsions were part of a campaign to deter the UK’s support for Ukraine.
In May, the UK expelled Russia‘s defence attache in London, Colonel Maxim Elovik, claiming he was an “undeclared military intelligence officer”, removed diplomatic status from several Russian-owned premises, and placed restrictions on Russian diplomatic visas.
In response, Russia expelled Britain’s defence attache in Moscow, Captain Adrian Coghill.
Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden warned that Russia “won’t think twice” about targeting British businesses in cyber attacks.
Mr McFadden, whose brief as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster includes national security, went on to say Russian cyber attacks could ‘turn off the lights for millions of people’ and accused Moscow of targeting British media, telecoms and energy infrastructure.
He added: “Aided by allies including the UK, Ukraine has had to defend itself from crippling Russian cyber attacks on its electricity grid, its airports, and other critical national infrastructure.
“Russia has targeted its mobile networks – cutting off communications for millions at a time – and on occasion, disabled the air raid warning system in Kyiv.”
Mr McFadden also used his speech to announce a new Laboratory for AI Security Research (LAISR) aimed at helping the UK stay ahead in ‘the new AI arms race’.
The centre will bring together GCHQ, Oxford University, the National Cyber Security Centre, the Alan Turing Institute and numerous Government departments, and be backed by an initial £8.2 million in state funding.
He added that the UK would look to strengthen Nato’s ‘collective cybersecurity’ through a new ‘incident response project’ to help deal with attacks on critical national infrastructure, while also boosting Britain’s own defences.
Mr McFadden said: “In a few days, I and the UK’s senior national security officials will be sitting down with British businesses to discuss how they can boost their own security and help defend the nation from actors with malign intent – particularly from Russia.
“And I’ll be very clear with them: Russia won’t think twice about targeting British businesses in pursuit of its goals. It is happy to exploit any gap in our physical or cyber defences.
“And so I urge them to do everything in their power to strengthen their own security and protect themselves, the country and our allies from this threat.”
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