Russia Expels British Diplomat Accused of Being a Spy

Russian authorities have ordered a diplomat at the British embassy in Moscow, Russia’s capital, to leave the country. Russian state media, citing the FSB security service, reported that the diplomat was expelled on suspicion of working as a spy. Moscow and London have mutually expelled several embassy staff over the past decade, with both sides accusing each other of espionage. An expulsion by one side is usually followed by a reciprocal response from the other. According to AFP news agency on Monday (30/3/2026), the diplomat, named by the FSB as embassy secretary Albertus Gerhardus Janse Van Rensburg, was expelled for involvement in “subversive intelligence activities threatening Russia’s security”. This was reported by the Russian news agency RIA. “A decision has been made to revoke Janse Van Rensburg’s accreditation and order him to leave Russia within two weeks,” RIA reported, citing an FSB statement. The Russian Foreign Ministry said it had summoned the British chargé d’affaires. The British embassy has not yet issued a public comment on the matter. Relations between London and Moscow, currently at their lowest point due to the Ukraine war, have been tense due to espionage accusations for decades. In 2006, former FSB officer and Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko died in London, poisoned with polonium, in what British investigators described as a murder by Russia’s secret service. In 2018, Britain said that double agent Sergei Skripal was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in the English cathedral city of Salisbury.