Moscow announced on Friday that the expulsion of six British diplomats for alleged espionage has drawn strong disapproval from the UK, while also intensifying hostility between Russia and the West over the war in Ukraine.
The six, however, are just a small number in the history of Moscow-London expulsions, which have a record of outbursts of anger in recent decades. Both sides have expelled more than 20 at a time — and in one case, more than 100.
The expulsions are often a kind of tit-for-tat action, with one side taking revenge on the other’s action, something Russian diplomatic language calls a “mirror response.”
Below is an overview of some of the key expulsion transactions between London and Moscow:
The ‘Skripal affair’ in 2018
Sergei Skripala Russian intelligence officer who was a double agent for Britain was seriously poisoned along with his daughter in Salisbury, where he had settled after being released by Russia in a prisoner exchange in 2010. The poison was identified as Novichok, a nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union.
A week and a half after the Skripals were found in serious condition, British Prime Minister Teresa May has blamed Russia before the attack and ordered the expulsion of 23 diplomats. Russia subsequently expelled an equal number of British.
The ‘Gordievsky Scandal’ in 1985
Oleg Gordievsky was the head of the KGB station in London, but had been passing information to British intelligence for years. He was recalled to Moscow for consultations in 1985 and decided to go, despite fears that his role as a double agent would be exposed.
He was interrogated but not charged, and Britain organized an undercover operation to smuggle him out of the Soviet Union. After the operation, Britain used information from Gordievsky to expel 25 Soviet diplomats. Moscow retaliated with the same number two days later.
Operation FOOT in 1971
In an effort to stem suspected widespread espionage by Soviet diplomats and even their wives, British agents managed to recruit a member of the Soviet trade delegation who was also a KGB agent. The agent, Oleg Lyalin, provided extensive information identifying others working for the KGB.
Britain hesitated to act on the information, concerned that it might jeopardize the international talks that were underway over the status of the divided city of Berlin. After the talks were concluded, Britain announced that 90 Soviet officials would be expelled and 15 others who were out of the country at the time would not be allowed to return — 105 in all.