{"id":4459,"date":"2026-03-30T09:40:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T09:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/?p=4459"},"modified":"2026-03-30T17:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T17:18:16","slug":"moscow-expels-uk-diplomat-for-spying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/30\/moscow-expels-uk-diplomat-for-spying\/","title":{"rendered":"Moscow expels UK diplomat for spying"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The second secretary of the British Embassy has been given two weeks to leave the country, the FSB has said<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A British diplomat in Moscow has been stripped of his accreditation and ordered to leave the country after conducting <em>\u201cintelligence and subversive activities\u201d<\/em> under the cover of his embassy post, Russia\u2019s Federal Security Service (FSB) has announced.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The officer, identified as Albertus Gerardus Janse van Rensburg, served as second secretary at the UK Embassy in Moscow. According to an FSB statement released on Monday, the diplomat deliberately provided false information when applying for entry permission, thereby violating Russian law.<\/p>\n<p>The FSB also said it had <em>\u201crecorded attempts to obtain sensitive information during informal meetings with Russian experts in the field of economics.\u201d<\/em> The agency concluded that van Rensburg was engaged in activities <em>\u201cthreatening the security of the Russian Federation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The diplomat has been given two weeks to leave the country.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n        <span><strong>Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<figure>\n            <img src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"FILE PHOTO.\" class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/69651ca285f540538d6fad09.jpg\"><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/630865-uk-seize-tanker-russia-sanctions\/\">UK believes it can seize any tanker under Russia sanctions \u2013 BBC<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the UK\u2019s charge d\u2019affaires, Danae Dholakia, to officially lodge a protest. In a brief appearance outside the ministry building, Dholakia was seen arriving with van Rensburg before entering without commenting to journalists.<br \/><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The expulsion of the British diplomat comes after London announced last week that it would cooperate with other European NATO members to <em>\u201cclose off UK waters, including the [English] Channel, for sanctioned vessels,\u201d<\/em> threatening to seize ships it believes to be part of an alleged Russian \u2018shadow fleet\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Moscow has denied operating a shadow fleet and has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/russia\/636325-russia-slams-uk-tanker-seizure-plan\/\">condemned<\/a> the <em>\u201cdeeply hostile step,\u201d<\/em> accusing the UK of planning to carry out <em>\u201cacts of piracy.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Watch RT\u2019s report on the latest developments below.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The second secretary of the British Embassy has been given two weeks to leave the country, the FSB has said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4459"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4459"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4463,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4459\/revisions\/4463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}