From Litvinenko to Skripals and Bulgarians: UK-Russian tensions this century

LONDON, Dec 4 - A British public inquiry concluded on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin must have ordered the Novichok nerve agent assassination attempt on Russian double agent Sergei Skripal seven years ago.

Since the turn of the century, Britain's relationship with Russia has steadily declined, amid allegations from both sides of spying and wrongdoing, made worse by the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Here is a timeline of some major events in the relationship during the last 25 years.

2000 - In March, British Prime Minister Tony Blair becomes the first Western leader to visit Vladimir Putin, before he has even won the Russian presidential election. The following month, Putin travels to London meeting Blair and Queen Elizabeth.

2003 - Putin visits Britain in June for a four-day state visit - the first Russian leader to do so since 1874 - to rebuild diplomatic bridges after ties were stained by the Iraq war. The queen hosted a banquet for him at Buckingham Palace.

2006 - Russia in January accuses Britain of carrying out a spying operation which involved using a receiver hidden in a fake rock to gather secret information from agents.

2006 - Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence agent who fled to Britain in 2000 and was a longstanding Putin critic, dies in November after drinking green tea poisoned with the radioactive isotope polonium-210 in London. Before his death he accused Putin of being responsible.

2007 - British prosecutors accuse former Russian spy Andrei Lugovoy of poisoning Litvinenko, further damaging diplomatic relations strained by his death. Russia denies any involvement and declines to extradite him. Both sides expel four of each other's diplomats in the ensuing spat.

2010 - In December, Britain and Russia engage in tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats accused of being involved in spying.

2011 - British Prime Minister David Cameron visits Russia and meets Putin in September, seeking to thaw relations and improve trade.

2012 - Cameron joins Putin to watch judo at the Olympic Games in London, the Russian leader's first trip to London since 2006.

2013 - The British government in July rejects holding a wide-ranging public inquiry into the death of Litvinenko, saying relations with Russia had played a part in its refusal, but denying this had been the main consideration.

2014 - A year on from its refusal, Britain says it will now hold an inquiry but denies it is related to tensions over Russia's annexation of Crimea and Moscow's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

2016 - The inquiry concludes that Lugovoy and another Russian, Dmitry Kovtun, carried out Litvinenko's killing as part of an operation probably directed by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and approved by Putin.

2018 - In March, former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia are found slumped on a bench in Salisbury, southern England.

Britain says they were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok and that Moscow was likely responsible. It expels 23 Russian diplomats it says are spies, accusations which are rejected by the Kremlin.

Four months later, British woman Dawn Sturgess dies after becoming exposed to the nerve agent. Police later charge in absentia three Russians, who it says are GRU military intelligence officers, with the attempted murder of the Skripals.

2022 - Britain becomes one of Ukraine's most vociferous backers following the Russian invasion in February, with military support and sanctions of Russian individuals and entities.

2024 - Britain says it will expel Russia's defence attache, remove diplomatic status from some properties and limit the length of Russian diplomatic visas over Moscow's "malign activity".

Russia responds by expelling Britain's defence attache and in September the Russian FSB security service revokes the accreditation of six UK diplomats it accuses of spying and sabotage work.

In October, the head of Britain's MI5 domestic spy agency says Russia's GRU military intelligence agency is bent on causing chaos across Britain and Europe, and the following month Moscow kicks out another British diplomat for spying just months after his arrival.

2025 - A team of Bulgarians is convicted in London in March of being part of a Russian spying network. Days later, Russia expels two more British diplomats it accuses of spying.

In October, a group of Britons is convicted of carrying out an arson attack on a Ukrainian business in London which prosecutors say was at the behest of Russia's Wagner mercenary group. REUTERS