The expelled Russian diplomat appears to be:
Mr Mikhail V. Repin m 3rd Secretary
according to the Daily / Sunday Telegraph
Mikhail Repin: the perfect party guest who was Whitehall spy for the Russians
Russian spy Mikhail Repin was expelled from Britain after he was caught attempting to recruit politicians and senior Whitehall officials as agents.
By Jason Lewis, Investigations Editor
9:00PM GMT 10 Dec 2011
Young, good looking and articulate, he introduced as himself as "Michael" at events at Westminster think tanks and embassy receptions.
A slight accent betraying his foreign roots, the tall, suave, urbane young man mixed easily with politicians, businessmen and policy wonks on the Whitehall drinks party circuit.
But rather than being the fast-track civil servant, defence industry high flier or political adviser that many assumed he was, "Michael" was Mikhail Viktorovich Repin, Third Secretary in the Political Section at the Russian Embassy, and a spy.
Far removed for the caricature image of fictional Soviet agents, Repin had arrived in London in the wake of the murder of dissident former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, allegedly on the orders of the Kremlin, after several Russian diplomats had been expelled from Britain.
Within two years he himself had been kicked out of the country following "clear evidence" of spying.
[...]
Repin was part of the political directorate known as "Line PR" and answerable to the most senior spy at the embassy the "Rezident".
His job appears to have been to talent spot potential agents in the political world who were in a position to obtain useful information to give Russia a political or economic advantage.
He set about his task with enthusiasm, attempting to "cultivate" individuals who either currently or in future may be of value to the Russians and quickly came to the attention of MI5 "watchers", from the Security Service's A Branch, tasked with keep Russian diplomats under surveillance.
[...]
Repin left Britain in December 2010. A British diplomat was expelled from Moscow in the now customary tit-for-tat response.
Neither man was named. To do so would break an unspoken "gentlemen's agreement" between the intelligence services in both countries.
Repin's whereabouts are now unknown. His cover is blown and he is unlikely to be given another foreign posting.
There is a second version of the same story online which omits several details:
Russian spy targeted MPs and Whitehall officials
A Russian spy was expelled from Britain after he was caught attempting to recruit politicians and senior Whitehall officials as agents.
By Jason Lewis, Investigations Editor
9:00PM GMT 10 Dec 2011
Mikhail "Michael" Repin, an officer from the Russian foreign intelligence service, the SVR, was thrown out after a surveillance operation highlighted his activities.Repin, who was officially a Third Secretary in the political section of the Embassy in Kensington Palace Gardens, also approached people with links to British security and defence companies.
[...]
For two years Repin was engaged in talent-spotting British citizens who might provide the Russians with useful intelligence or were connected with someone with access to sensitive information.
[...]
A brief statement from William Hague, the foreign secretary, last December said the Russian embassy in London had been asked to "withdraw a member of their staff from the UK".
The ultimatum was issued "in response to clear evidence of activities by the Russian intelligence services against UK interests," Hague said.
See also Spy Blog - London Diplomatic List archive - Mikhail V. Repin appears on the 6th December 2010 list, but not on the 20th January 2011 one.
Michael Repin was one of the replacements for the 8 Russian diplomats / spies expelled from the Russian Embassy in London in June 2008, after the failed British attempt to extradite or even question Andrei Lugovoi in connection with the astonishing radioactive Polonium murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London.
What was the ""clear evidence of spying" ?
Was it actually anything more than the normal Diplomatic cocktail / barbecue party circuit chatter or even attendance at military / intelligence / industrial complex think tank conferences or exhibitions etc ?
Given the weakness of even the secret the "intelligence" supplied by MI5 the Security Service against Ekatarina Zatuliveter in the recent spy deportation debacle, how can can they convince the British public that they should be trusted over Mikhail Repin either ?
Did the "surveillance operation" actually catch Repin making an illicit "recruitment" approach to anyone with access to any real National Security secrets ?
Was there any actual evidence of him operating a Dead Letter Drop or other illicit communications technique ?
By not immediately publishing the names of diplomats / spies expelled from London (regardless of whether they are Russians, Israelis, Iranians, Libyans etc.), the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is only trying to fool the British public, since the foreign press corps, and every other foreign Government, intelligence agency, serious organised criminal or terrorist gang already know such names.
They even try to refuse such information under Freedom of Information Act exemptions, although why these exemptions should be applied to foreigners who are not even in the European Union, is unclear.
See the Spy Blog FOIA request FCO diplomatic expulsions Polonium 210 murder affair category archive.
Has the Daily / Sunday Telegraph decided to break with the "voluntary" Defence Advisory Notice system of mainstream media self censorship ?
Will The Independent or the London Evening Standard newspapers keep silent about this story, given that their proprietor Alexander Lebedev is a former KGB diplomat / spy who was stationed at the Russian Embassy in London ?