Britain’s national flag flies at the British Embassy in Moscow, 13 September 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE/SERGEI ILNITSKY
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has expelled two British diplomats from the country whom it accused of espionage, just days after three Bulgarian citizens were convicted of spying for Russia in a British court.
The FSB said in a statement on Monday that it had uncovered an “intelligence presence” at the British Embassy in Moscow and that two UK diplomats had provided false information to gain entry to Russia, adding that the Foreign Ministry had revoked their accreditation and ordered them to leave the country within two weeks.
Russian state-owned news agency TASS named the two men as Alkesh Odedra, the embassy’s second secretary, and Michael Skinner, the spouse of Tabassum Rashid, first secretary at the embassy’s political department.
Alkesh Odedra (L) and Michael Skinner.
The expulsion is the latest in a long series of tit-for-tat measures and countermeasures between Moscow and London. In September, six British diplomats stationed in Moscow were accused of espionage activities and had their accreditation revoked, despite the UK government categorically denying the accusations.
In November, Moscow announced the expulsion of another British diplomat, who, it said, had been conducting reconnaissance and “subversive work” in the country.
Monday’s announcement by the FSB is likely to have been provoked by the conviction of three Bulgarian nationals living in the UK for spying for Russia. The spies in question are believed to be members of a spy ring directed by Jan Marsalek, an Austrian businessman who fled to Russia in 2020 after a company he helped to run collapsed amid claims of fraud valued at €1.9 billion.
The spy ring reportedly targeted Russian investigative journalist Roman Dobrokhotov, the editor-in-chief of independent media outlet The Insider, and award-winning Bulgarian journalist Christo Grozev, both of whom helped unmask the two Russian military intelligence officers accused of attempting to murder retired double agent Sergey Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury in 2018.
Dobrokhotov has subsequently revealed that the police had informed him of a second Kremlin group targeting him, although details of the alleged plot have not yet been made public at his request, The Guardian reported.
