text: A British university student has been ordered out of Russia amid claims she is a spy. History postgraduate Laura Sumner, 24, was given ten days to leave the country after being fined £23.50 for an alleged visa violation. But Russian media reports have branded her ‘Agent Sumner’ and linked her to a bizarre claim of a revolutionary plot. Laura Mary Sumner, pictured, has been ordered to leave Russia within ten days after being branded a 'spy' A pro-Kremlin website claimed she was one of a number of students carrying out research in Russia by British historian, Professor Sarah Badcock. The report claimed the Nottingham University academic’s work was ‘important for the plans of the West to create a “colour revolution” in Russia’. The term describes the overthrow of governments in former Soviet states, such as the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Professor Badcock, 40, is supervising Miss Sumner’s PhD thesis on early Soviet Russia but there has been no suggestion outside Russian media that either woman is involved in espionage or plans to foment revolution. Russian authorities accused her of conducting research in the country without the appropriate visa . Ms Sumner, left, was researching Soviet rule from 1917 to 1921 as part of her PhD under Professor Sarah Badcock of Nottingham University, right, who is acknowledged as one of Britain's leading Russian experts . Questions have been raised over whether Miss Sumner has fallen victim to a tit-for-tat punishment by Russia. It came on the day that it emerged Britain had granted political asylum to a wealthy supporter of a prominent Russian opposition leader called Vladimir Ashurkov, who has been accused of embezzlement. And diplomatic relations have remained tense following Britain’s decision to launch a public inquiry into the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London. Action was taken against Miss Sumner by the Federal Migration Service but sources claimed officers from the FSB, the successor to the feared KGB, were in the courtroom. Federal Judge Ilya Varlamov, pictured, ordered that Ms Sumner must leave the country within 10 days . Ms Sumner, left, appeared in court along with an interpreter, right, and was ordered to pay a £23.50 fine . A migration service spokesman said the hearing on Wednesday April 1 in the city of Nizhny Novgorod was ‘not an April Fool joke’. Nottingham University said Miss Sumner appeared to have fallen foul of a ‘minor infringement in visa regulations’ but did not respond to the spying claims. She has been offered consular support by the British Embassy. Miss Sumner, from Solihull, describes herself as a feminist and dog lover on Twitter, and has been working on her thesis for more than a year. She has been to Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod at least twice to carry out research. She was unavailable for comment and her Twitter account had been deleted yesterday. Professor Badcock was also unavailable and was said to be on holiday with her family.
target: Laura Mary Sumner has been ordered to leave Russia within ten days .
  Ms Sumner was researching Soviet rule from 1917 to 1921 in a library .
  Officials claimed she was in Russia on a commercial not a study visa .
  Russian media branded Ms Sumner 'a spy' due to her research interests .