It wasn't a 'huge diplomatic incident' - it didn't really impact UK/Russian relations in any meaningful or long term way. It was nowhere on the scale of, say, L

It wasn't a 'huge diplomatic incident' - it didn't really impact UK/Russian relations in any meaningful or long term way. It was nowhere on the scale of, say, Litvinenko, which did have diplomatic consequences. Countries like to crow when they come across potentially rather inept attempts at espionage, but there's no real diplomatic issues raised since everyone expects espionage to be happening. It's PR more than anything else.