by Mikhail Kolovangin
[REGNUM] Jans van Rensburg, Second Secretary of the British Embassy in Russia, has been stripped of his accreditation. A spokesperson for the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) public relations center explained that van Rensburg knowingly provided false information when applying for entry into Russia, violating Russian law.
According to the intelligence service, he conducted intelligence and subversive activities and attempted to obtain sensitive economic information during informal meetings with Russian experts.
The diplomat is now required to leave Russia within two weeks. The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned British Chargé d'Affaires Deini Dholakia to present a protest note.
The nature of the charges against van Rensburg demonstrates how the British model of work in Russia has changed. Instead of recruiting a single source, they are now building a broad network through universities, expert forums, banks, business associations, and regional visits, including to major industrial cities.
This scheme allows, under the guise of routine diplomatic and expert activity, to collect a large array of data—from sentiments in professional communities to details of industry reforms and sanctions pressure.
Some contacts are built long-term: through grants, joint research, conferences, educational programs, and informal meetings where not only academic issues but also political and economic topics are discussed.
The van Rensburg scandal became the latest link in a chain of expulsions of British employees who were covert intelligence agents.
In January 2026, the FSB announced the discovery of an undeclared British intelligence officer, Gareth Samuel Davies, who had been working undercover as the second secretary of the embassy's administrative and economic department. Davies's accreditation was also revoked, and he was given two weeks to leave.
In 2024, Russia revoked the accreditation of six members of the British Embassy's political department due to their involvement in coordinating subversive activities and escalating tensions around Ukraine. In 2025, two British diplomats were expelled on espionage charges.
Moscow's decisions to expel British spies are almost always followed by responses from London, which declares Russian diplomats personae non gratae and ramps up accusatory rhetoric about "threats to national security."
According to Russian data and published materials, following the provocative " Sergei and Yulia Skripal case " and other scandalous episodes, London built an entire system whose goal was to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia and simultaneously strengthen its influence in the post-Soviet space.
Russia links the coordination center for this work to the Directorate for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which, according to Russian sources, was integrated into British intelligence and expanded after 2022.
This area includes "programs to combat disinformation and develop media," where British and affiliated organizations such as the BBC, Reuters, and Bellingcat* play a key role. Among the political overseers are senior officials from the Foreign Office and National Security, from Undersecretary Philip Barton to the heads of the special HMG Russia Unit.
A separate area is working through so-called soft power instruments, the most important of which for London for many years was the British Council*, officially engaged in promoting the English language and educational programs. In 2025, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office designated it an undesirable organization.
The Council's activities in regions neighboring Russia, primarily in Central Asia, appear to be a long-term investment in personnel who will shape the youth agenda and educational programs with an emphasis on moving away from Moscow.
The story of Janse van Rensburg shows that British activities in Russia are increasingly resembling less a classic residency and more a distributed network, in which one cell is embedded within another. Formally, this may be a cultural program, an expert seminar, cyber research, or a business mission, but in reality, it all boils down to London's political intelligence activities.
The withdrawal of accreditation, the designation of organisations as undesirable and public revelations have already led to the expulsion of many British diplomats from Russia over the past two years for links to intelligence.