Russia has revoked the accreditation of two British diplomats over alleged intelligence activities, the Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Monday, the latest in a series of tit-for-tat diplomatic rebukes that was quickly dismissed by London as “baseless.

Relations between Moscow and London have been strained by intelligence scandals throughout Russian President Vladimir Putin’s quarter-century in power. In 2018, Britain and its allies expelled dozens of Russian embassy officials they said were spies over the attempted poisoning of former double agent,

The Russian government on Monday expelled two British diplomats and gave two weeks for them to exit the country over allegations of espionage. Britain said the allegations are "baseless."

The pair were accused of engaging in intelligence activity under cover of the embassy in Moscow, after the UK convicted six Bulgarian nationals of large-scale spying for Russia