The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned the British Chargé d'Affaires in Moscow Danny Dholakia, RIA Novosti reports, citing the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“The British Chargé d'Affaires has been summoned to Smolensk“, the ministry announced, without providing details or reasons.
In early February, the United Kingdom expelled a Russian diplomat. The decision was taken in response to Russian measures, the British government explained.
In mid-January, the Federal Security Service reported that a department secretary at the embassy in Moscow had collaborated with British intelligence services. The person in question is Gareth Samuel Davis, second secretary of the administrative and economic department of the embassy. He has been stripped of his accreditation and ordered to leave Russia within two weeks.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned diplomats from Western countries several times in the past month. On March 27, the Czech ambassador was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry after a Molotov cocktail attack on the Russian House in Prague. Moscow has demanded an investigation. The Czech Foreign Ministry condemned the attack and assured that the police were already investigating the case.
In early March, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the Dutch ambassador, Joanneke Balfort, to protest against a demonstration held in front of the Russian embassy in The Hague on February 24. The ministry noted that the demonstration effectively blocked the activities of the diplomatic mission.
Previously, the Foreign Ministry protested against the Finnish ambassador in connection with a demonstration in front of the Russian embassy in Helsinki, during which demonstrators burned a Russian flag. The ministry called the incident "an act of desecration committed with the tacit consent of law enforcement".