Authorities in Moscow have expelled a British diplomat accused of espionage, the Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Tuesday.
The diplomat, identified as Edward Pryor Wilkes, was reportedly sent to Moscow as a replacement for one of six British diplomats accused of spying in August, according to the FSB.
The agency alleged that Wilkes “knowingly provided false information to obtain entry into Russia, violating Russian law.” It further claimed that his activities bore “signs of intelligence and subversive work” posing a threat to national security.
In response, Russia’s Foreign Ministry revoked Wilkes’ accreditation and ordered him to leave the country within two weeks. Britain’s ambassador to Moscow was also summoned over the allegations, according to state media.
The British Foreign Office dismissed the accusations as “malicious and baseless.” In a statement to The Moscow Times, a spokesperson said, “This is not the first time Russia has made such claims against our staff. We will respond in due course.”
Wilkes was identified as the second secretary in the political department of the British Embassy in Moscow. The FSB stated he was assigned through the U.K. Foreign Office’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia directorate.
The FSB further accused the directorate of having been transformed into “an intelligence service tasked with inflicting strategic defeat on Russia” in the wake of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
