The Russian embassy in London has requested information from the British authorities on the arrest of alleged Russian spy Katia Zatuliveter, a spokesman for the embassy said on Monday.
"The Russian embassy has sent an official request to the Foreign and Home Offices to clarify the situation," the spokesman said.
"The consular department of the Russian embassy is ready to do all it can to provide the necessary assistance to Russian citizen Yekaterina [Katia] Ztuliveter, if her detention and arrest are officially confirmed," he added.
Earlier in the day Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the ministry was still trying to establish Zatuliveter's nationality.
"If she really is our citizen, we will provide her with consular access and talk to her," Lavrov said.
Lavrov said the incident would not affect ties between Russian and Britain, but that someone was "clearly trying to hamper relations."
Zatuliveter, 25, an aide to Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock on the influential Defense Select Committee, was arrested on Thursday and is to be deported over allegations that she was connected to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).
The suspected spy said on Monday that she was certain she would not be deported today.
Britain's secret service, MI5, said the assistant had access to classified documents supplied to the committee. Hancock, whose interest in Russia has been something of a concern for the House of Commons, has recently tabled parliamentary questions about Britain's nuclear deterrent and the location of its international submarine bases.
LONDON, December 6 (RIA Novosti)
