A recent incident in the British Parliament has caused a stir, just before Christmas. A group of Russian diplomats had joined a public tour of the Parliament and later managed to enter a restricted area of the House of Lords. Security forces quickly discovered the diplomats and escorted them out of the building, according to The Guardian.
The newspaper speculates that the diplomats were trying to brag about their alleged success in entering the British Parliament to the Kremlin. “It was not a perfect situation, but they were caught before any harm could be done” said a government representative. The incident has raised concerns among ministers and security agencies. As a result, MPs have been asked in writing not to invite Russian diplomats to the Parliament, even privately.
“The official accredited representative of the Russian government, the Russian Ambassador, will not be received on the Parliament’s premises until further notice. This also applies to all other Russian diplomats and officials of the Russian Embassy, who are accredited in the UK” wrote the Speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, and the Speaker of the House of Lords, McFall of Alcluith.
A Parliament spokesperson said, “The safety of everyone who works in and visits the Parliament is our top priority. However, we cannot comment on our security measures.”
In 2022, the British government, in response to Moscow’s actions in Ukraine, banned all Russian diplomats and embassy officials in London from accessing the Parliament. Further restrictions on Russian diplomats were imposed in the autumn of 2023, and they are now required to provide detailed information about their travel, including destination, route, and mode of transport, when traveling outside a 120-kilometer radius of London.