FILE PHOTO: A flag flies at the British embassy in Moscow, Russia September 13, 2024. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/File Photo
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia accused two British diplomats of spying on Monday and gave them two weeks to leave the country, maintaining the downward trajectory of diplomatic relations with Europe even as it negotiates to restore ties with the United States.
There was no immediate response to a request for comment from the British embassy, which has in the past rejected similar allegations against British diplomats in Moscow.
The pair appear to be the first Western diplomats to be expelled from Russia since Moscow and Washington opened talks on restoring staff at U.S. and Russian embassies depleted by tit-for-tat expulsions, part of President Donald Trump's rapprochement with the Kremlin that has alarmed European allies.
Similar expulsions have sharply curtailed the functioning of Russian embassies across the West and Western missions in Russia since Moscow launched its full-blown assault on Ukraine in 2022.
Russia's Federal Security Service said the two diplomats had provided false information when obtaining permission to enter Russia, and it had "identified signs of intelligence and subversive work" they had carried out, harming Russian security.
The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned a representative of the British embassy over the expulsions.
Britain's continued support of Ukraine's military and Prime Minister Keir Starmer's recent statements about putting British boots on the ground and planes in the air in Ukraine as part of a potential peacekeeping force have angered Moscow.
Russian police in February opened a criminal investigation into an alleged assault on a freelance journalist by a person believed to be an employee of the British embassy, an allegation London dismissed as "an interference operation" designed to intimidate legitimate diplomats.
That announcement came a day after Britain announced it was expelling a Russian diplomat in retaliation for Moscow throwing out a British diplomat last November.
Relations between Britain and Russia have plunged to post-Cold War lows since the start of the Ukraine war. Britain has joined successive waves of sanctions against Russia and provided arms to Ukraine.
(Reporting by ReutersWriting by Andrew OsbornEditing by Peter Graff)
