‘The frontline is everywhere’: new MI6 head to warn of growing Russian threat | MI6
MI6’s new chief will warn on Monday that assassination plots, sabotage, cyber attacks and manipulation of information by Russia and other hostile states mean “the frontline is everywhere”.
Making his first speech in office, Blaise Metreweli is expected to say Britain faces a new “age of uncertainty” in which the rules of conflict are being rewritten, particularly in light of wider Kremlin aggression after the invasion of Ukraine.
“Exporting chaos is a feature, not a bug, of Russia’s approach to international engagement,” the agency’s first female head will argue, and this is expected to continue “until Putin is forced to change his calculus.”
Chief of the Defense General Staff, Air Force Chief Marshal Richard Knighton, is expected to make similar comments regarding the extent of the threat, especially from Russia. In a separate speech, Knighton also called on the country as a whole to “step up”, saying “the situation is more dangerous than I have known in my entire career”.
The previously announced remarks come as Keir Starmer is due to fly to Berlin for an emergency summit with European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, in a bid to persuade the US to accept an alternative European peace plan for Ukraine.
Russia is described by Metreweli in his speech, which will be published in full on Monday afternoon, as a serious threat with its “aggressive, expansionist and revisionist” mentality, which led Vladimir Putin to order the invasion of his neighbor and implement aggressive support tactics across Europe.
The intelligence chief is expected to say: “Putin should have no doubt: our support is permanent. The pressure we are applying on Ukraine’s behalf will be permanent,” but the diplomatic reality of the past month is that the US position is uncertain, with Trump and Witkoff previously siding with Russia’s demands.
Threats facing the UK include the attempt to kill Sergei and Yulia Skripal with a nerve toxin in Salisbury in 2018, which led to the death of British woman Dawn Sturgess. The public inquiry into the death of Sturgess, who accidentally picked up the vial of poison, concluded this month that the Russian president was “morally responsible”.
These also include Russia’s efforts to use artificial intelligence to create disinformation on a large scale, create online videos aimed at undermining public support for Ukraine, or spread false rumors about the health of the Princess of Wales, as highlighted in a recent speech by foreign secretary Yvette Cooper.
Six Bulgarians living in the UK were jailed in May for their roles in an espionage plot that included hostile surveillance of an investigative journalist known for Kremlin exposés across Europe and an attempt to hack the phone numbers of Ukrainian soldiers thought to be training in Germany.
However, preliminary quotes did not explicitly mention China, other than to reference last week’s sanctions on two companies based in the country accused of indiscriminate hacking against Britain and its allies.
The prime minister hopes to visit Beijing in January before Trump travels there in April, as ministers are still grappling with whether to allow China to build a new super embassy at London’s Royal Mint Court.
Knighton, the country’s top military official since September, is expected to highlight Russia’s threat to both Britain and the NATO military alliance at his first annual conference at the Royal United Services Institute think tank.
He is expected to say, “The war in Ukraine shows Putin’s desire to target neighboring states, including civilian populations,” claiming that Moscow wants to “challenge, limit, divide and ultimately destroy NATO.”
He will argue that the long-term success of the armed forces depends on reconnecting with society so that defense becomes “a higher national priority for all of us”, with the participation of more Britons.
Metreweli took over the head of MI6, or C, from Richard Moore in October. He was previously head of MI6’s technology and innovation department (Q) and spent most of his career in the Middle East and Europe.
The new leader will also stress that the international spy agency must stay on top of trends in computing, traditionally the domain of its sister agency GCHQ, while also maintaining the effective use of human intelligence sources that have traditionally been its trade.
“Technology mastery must permeate everything we do. Not just in our laboratories, but in the field, in our business skills and, most importantly, in the mindset of every officer. We must be as comfortable with lines of code as we are with human resources, fluent in Python as well as many languages,” he is expected to say.
While allies say this is not a cryptic criticism of Donald Trump’s White House, but rather a call for a whole-of-society approach to technological development, previously released quotes have highlighted a more general reference to the moral dimension of high-tech power.
“The defining issue of the 21st century is not just who uses the most powerful technologies, but also who guides them with the greatest wisdom. Our security, prosperity and humanity depend on it,” the new chief will say.
Intelligence chief expected to say ‘we all have choices to make going forward’ ““It will be our rediscovery of our common humanity, our ability and courage to listen, that will determine how our future develops.”
