Russian ambassador slams British ‘hostile action’

The Russian ambassador to Ireland described the expulsion by Britain of 23 diplomats as a “hostile action” and said it would “not go unanswered”.

Yury Filatov also labelled reports in The Sunday Times of a scaling up in Russian spy infrastructure in Ireland as a “fabrication”, and stated it was part of a wider “massive propaganda campaign against Russia”.

He declined to answer specific questions about Russian spy activities here and said if the Irish Government had any issues they needed to discuss, there were formal channels available.