London revokes accreditation from Russian diplomat, diplomatic spouse

LONDON. March 12 (Interfax) - The United Kingdom announced on Wednesday that it decided to revoke accreditation for a Russian diplomat and a spouse of a Russian diplomat.

"Summoning the Russian ambassador today, a senior Foreign Office official made clear that the UK will not stand for intimidation of British embassy staff and their families. Consequently, we are taking immediate reciprocal action, revoking accreditation for a Russian diplomat and a diplomatic spouse," the UK Foreign Office said.

"We have drawn a line under this incident and demand Russia do the same. Any further action taken by Russia will be considered an escalation and responded to accordingly," it said.

On Monday, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement that Second Secretary of the British Embassy to Russia Alkesh Odedra and spouse of the embassy's political department first secretary Michael Skinner have been stripped of their accreditation and must leave Russia within two weeks.

"There is proof that Second Secretary of the British Embassy to Russia Alkesh Odedra and Michael Skinner, spouse of the embassy's Political Department first secretary Tabassum Rashid, posted to Moscow intentionally provided false data in their application for entering our country, thus breaching Russian laws," the FSB public relations center said.

The FSB "has also detected signs of intelligence and subversive operations threatening security of the Russian Federation in the activity of those diplomats," it said.