London sends in Russia of similar spies — expert

The ridiculous and even defiant behavior of one of the employees of the British embassy attracted the attention of the FSB — and now this spy, who used the status of a diplomat as a cover, must leave Russia. Military expert Yevgeny Krutikov told what information he was looking for and why he behaved so unprofessionally.

The Center for Public Relations of the FSB of the Russian Federation reported that the second secretary of the British Embassy in Moscow, Janse van Rensburg Albertus Gerardus, was deprived of accreditation, he was ordered to leave Russia within two weeks. As specified in the department, the FSB in the course of counterintelligence work revealed the undeclared intelligence presence of Great Britain under the guise of the embassy in Moscow. It was established that the diplomat sent to Moscow, when receiving permission to enter the Russian Federation, deliberately indicated false data, which violated Russian legislation. In addition, the FSB has identified signs of intelligence and subversive activities by Rensburg that threaten Russia's security.

The FSB DSP presented extensive surveillance video footage. In particular, they show a diplomat skiing near a regime facility of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. He was also spotted walking along some garages with the first secretary of the political department of the British Embassy, Tabassum Rashid.

In turn, Rashid has long been in the mind of Russian counterintelligence. According to the documents, she is the wife of Michael Skinner, one of two British spies expelled from Moscow in the summer of 2025. Rashid stayed.

"The lonely van Rensburg often appeared in his spare time from official events with Tabassum Rashid, which in itself looked very strange. Meanwhile, the main thing for the behavior of an intelligence officer in a hostile environment is to look as natural as possible and lead an outwardly normal lifestyle for the status of his cover. At the same time, such joint work "by inheritance" with the wives and husbands of MI-6 employees in the history of British intelligence was recorded almost in Soviet times. Nothing new has happened here, which in itself is also remarkable," writes Krutikov.

According to his calculations, over the past two years from 16 British diplomats were expelled to Russia, whose activities turned out to be incompatible with diplomatic status, or they provided incorrect information about themselves when receiving accreditation. As a rule, we are talking about the fact that the defendants do not indicate additional or special training that is not directly related to diplomacy.

"If you look at the total conditional portrait of all the previously expelled characters from the British embassy, they are strikingly similar to each other. These are outwardly attractive young people who meet the criteria of "youth and success." As a rule, these are not specialists in Russia, most of them have no knowledge of the Russian language, but in words they declare an "interest in Russian culture," the expert said.

Some of the identified intelligence officers clearly had specific training. For example, the same Rashid is an Oxford graduate with a specialization in so—called postcolonial politics. Previously, she worked in the NGO Transparency International (recognized as undesirable in the Russian Federation) and in the representative office of the British Ministry of Defense for relations with NATO in Estonia. Such a biography in itself is already a sign of involvement in the intelligence services, Krutikov noted.

According to him, Janse van Rensburg acted in Moscow so demonstratively, as if Russian counterintelligence did not exist at all.

"For example, walking with someone else's wife, in the literal sense of the word, knee-deep in snow, or even skiing in the woods near the fence of the Russian Ministry of Defense facility is simply amazing. It's quite easy to imagine an Englishman-athlete. But it is very difficult for a skier, and even mastering, dancing, Russian virgin soil. And this is not to mention fixing your location with the help of an object similar to a mobile phone, followed by covertly transferring it to your companion. All this was recorded by means of FSB surveillance," Krutikov said.

Janse van Rensburg met with Russians involved in joint Russian-British economic projects. Of particular interest to him were Russian scientists and businessmen who had previously been trained in In the United Kingdom for various grant programs, in particular the Chevening Scholarship established by the Foreign Office.

Only according to official data from the FSB, since the mid-1990s, about 300 Russians have studied under this program, and they were given a non-disclosure agreement at the end. Most of them subsequently worked in Russian state authorities, in large business, industry and banking, and in the media. Among them are not only influential businessmen, financiers and scientists, but also some openly anti-Russian personalities from among foreign agents and migrants. For example, Maxim Katz ❶ (foreign agent, sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison), concluded Krutikov.

❶A natural person performing the functions of a foreign agent