Britain and Russia spy sagas: Past sanctions
LONDON: Russia announced yesterday the expulsion of 23 British diplomats in a tit-for-tat move following London’s response to a nerve agent attack against a Russian former double agent in England. They are the latest sanctions by London and Moscow in spying affairs:
The Cold War In September 1971 Britain expelled a record number of 105 Soviet diplomats and officials after Moscow refused to clarify the activities of 440 of its citizens in Britain. Moscow in turn expelled 18 Britons. In September 1985 Moscow and London engaged in a furious six-day exchange of spy expulsions, declaring a draw after 31 on each side had been sent packing. This followed the defection to Britain of the KGB’s London station chief, Oleg Gordievsky. In May 1989, 11 Soviet diplomats and journalists were thrown out for spying. Meanwhile 11 Britons were sent home from Moscow in a tit-for-tat move.
Post-Soviet era
In May 1996 Britain ordered the expulsion of four Russians working at the London embassy, in response to the kicking out of four British diplomats from Russia. According to Moscow, the Britons were in contact with a Russian working for British intelligence. In January, 2006 Moscow said it had uncovered four British spies who enjoyed diplomatic status and engaged in the alleged illegal funding of pro-democracy and human rights groups. Russia’s intelligence service accused British diplomats of involvement in a spy ring in which agents allegedly passed secrets through a high-tech communications system hidden in a fake rock in a Moscow park. Russian President Vladimir Putin then cracked down on non-governmental organizations, forcing several of them to close down. In January 2012 a former top aide to then British Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted that Britain had a spy plot involving a fake rock.
The Litvinenko affair
July 2007: Britain expelled four Russian diplomats and hit Moscow with visa restrictions after Moscow refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, the main suspect in the murder of ex-Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko. Litvinenko was poisoned in London in 2006 with the radioactive substance polonium-210, in the most notorious of a rash of suspicious deaths of high-profile Russian exiles in Britain. Moscow responded with the expulsion of four British diplomats, suspended counter-terrorism cooperation with London and also stopped issuing visas to British officials.
In 2008 two branches of the British Council cultural organization in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg were then closed following pressure from Russian authorities for alleged tax irregularities. In January 2016, after a British probe found that Moscow was responsible for the Litvinenko affair, the British government summoned Russia’s ambassador, and froze the assets of Lugovoi and a second suspect, Dmitry Kovtun.
Poisoning in English city On March 4 spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, are found unconscious, slumped on a bench outside a shopping centre in Salisbury. They are currently in critical condition in a local hospital. Skripal is a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who was jailed in his country for betraying agents to Britain’s MI6 secret service and moved there in a spy swap in 2010. On March 7 police say that the father and daughter have been poisoned by a highly toxic nerve agent.
London accuses Moscow On March 12 British Prime Minister Theresa May says it is “highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act”, saying Moscow could be directly to blame or may have “lost control” of the nerve agent. She tells British lawmakers that the militarygrade nerve agent used was identified as belonging to a group of nerve agents known as Novichok and of a type developed by Russia.
Called “newcomer” in English, Novichok refers to a group of powerful and deadly chemical compounds reportedly developed by the Soviet government towards the end of the Cold War in the 1970s and 1980s. Moscow rejects the claims as “provocation”. The US says it stands “in solidarity” with Britain. France and Germany make similar statements the following day. On March 13 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says that Moscow is “not guilty” of the poisoning and is ready to cooperate with London. Two days later Lavrov’s deputy Sergei Ryabkov says Moscow never had any programs to develop the Novichok nerve agent.
On March 14 London says that Moscow is “culpable” and it will expel 23 of the 59 Russian diplomats present in the United Kingdom. It also suspends highlevel diplomatic contact with Moscow and will keep royals at home during the 2018 football World Cup. Russia’s foreign ministry slams London’s “choice for confrontation”, adding that retaliation will follow shortly.—Agencies