Russia on mission to cause mayhem in UK and Europe, MI5
Russian intelligence has set itself the goal of sowing "chaos on British and European streets," said the head of the British counterintelligence service MI5, Ken McCallum, speaking at a meeting of the counter-terrorism operations center in London on Tuesday, October 8, writes DW.
"We've seen arson, sabotage and more. Dangerous actions that are being carried out with increasing recklessness," McCallum said, without giving details of the Russian operations. He pointed that to carry out its "permanent mission to create chaos," the GRU is forced to turn to representatives of criminal circles and citizens of third countries, since many spies who, according to him, worked in Russian embassies have been expelled.
The UK's "leading role" in supporting Ukraine means "we loom large in the fevered imagination of Putin's regime" and further acts of aggression on UK soil should be expected, he warned.
The UK's current terror threat level is substantial - meaning an attack is likely, BBC reports.
More than 750 Russian diplomats had been expelled from Europe since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, "the great majority of them" spies, Mr McCallum said.
This affected the Russian intelligence services' capability, he explained, and added that diplomatic visas had been denied to those who Britain and allies considered Russian spies.
Russian state actors turned to proxies, such as private intelligence operatives and criminals, to do "their dirty work", but this affected the professionalism of their operations and made them easier to disrupt.
He said that since the 2022 killing of Mahsa Amini - the 22-year-old who died in Iranian police custody after being arrested for allegedly violating rules requiring women to wear the headscarf - "we’ve seen plot after plot here in the UK, at an unprecedented pace and scale".
In a previous public address he referred to 10 plots against Iranians in the UK. That number has now doubled, implying that Iranian state activity is undeterred by the threat of being caught.
He added that, as the war in the Middle East continues, MI5 would give its "fullest attention to the risk of an increase in – or a broadening of – Iranian state aggression in the UK".
