Russia expelled a British diplomat after accusing him of espionage Tuesday, its Federal Security Service (FSB) announced.
It marks the latest tit-for-tat diplomatic move amid mounting tensions over the war in Ukraine.
A statement from the FSB accused the British diplomat in question — Edward Pryor — of “deliberately giving false information in obtaining an entry permit to our country, thereby violating Russian law.”
The security service also said that the diplomat had showed “signs of conducting subversive intelligence work, threatening the national security of the Russian Federation.”
On those grounds, Russia’s Foreign Ministry has ordered him to leave Russia within two weeks. U.K. Ambassador to Russia Nigel Casey has also been summoned to the foreign ministry.
There was no immediate response to the news from the U.K. Foreign Office or No. 10 Downing Street.
It comes amid deepening hostility between the U.K. and Russia over the war in Ukraine.
British-made long-range missiles were widely reported to have been used inside Russia last week, while the Kremlin pushed back Monday at the suggestion floated in Le Monde of British or French boots on the ground in Ukraine.
In May, the British government expelled Russia’s London defense attaché after accusing him of spying for the Kremlin. Pryor himself had been sent to Russia as a replacement for six British diplomats who were expelled in September for, among other things, meeting with Kremlin-critical rights activists and journalists.
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