European officials are raising the alarm over Russia’s expansionist agenda and hybrid warfare tactics. “The new frontline is everywhere,” the UK’s MI6 chief said in her first speech atop the agency, warning that Russia poses an “acute threat” to the West. The EU on Monday tightened sanctions against Russian ally Belarus, following incursions by weather balloons into Lithuanian airspace, which officials believe are part of Moscow’s intensifying covert sabotage campaign to sow instability.
European leaders are further grappling with how to respond to Washington’s disdain toward the continent amid precarious Ukraine peace talks. The US’ disengagement “could give Russia a window of opportunity to escalate before Europe is ready to resist,” Lithuania’s former foreign minister wrote.
Those comments are pretty intense.
The order of world institutions “designed in the ashes of the second world war” was, she said, being deliberately contested “from sea to space, from the battlefield to the boardroom” and “even our brains” through the deliberate spread of disinformation online.
She said Britain and the world were “operating in a space between peace and war” – which the spy agency, traditionally focused on running agents and working with human sources, had to contend with. She said MI6 had to become “fluent in technology” and anticipate the impact of future advances.
Metreweli, 48, took over as the head of MI6, the UK’s international spy agency, in September, becoming the first woman to hold the post. As its chief, or C, she is the only member of the organisation to be publicly named.
An Arabic speaker, her early career included running agents in the Middle East as well as deployments in eastern Europe. She was appointed to the top job by the prime minister after running MI6’s technology department, or Q branch.
Metreweli said she would “break with tradition” and not “give you a global threat tour”. This allowed her to sidestep any direct analysis of China, which has been accused of trying to run espionage and hacking campaigns against the UK.
[…]
Russia, the focus of remarks trailed in advance, was described as “aggressive, expansionist and revisionist, seeking to subjugate Ukraine and harass Nato”. She said Putin was not serious about trying to end the war in Ukraine, describing him as “dragging out negotiations” and shifting the burden of the conflict on to his own population.
Meanwhile, the head of Britain’s armed forces said on Monday that Britain needed to develop “a whole of nation response” to deal with the growing military threat posed by Russia.
Richard Knighton, the chief of the defence staff, said that while there was a “remote chance” of a direct attack on the UK, the invasion of a Nato ally in eastern Europe by Russia’s 1.1 million-strong army was more likely.
Just because she refers to the threat against “the west” and doesn’t specifically call out America, if you think her complaints aren’t aimed at the U.S as well as Russia, you’re missing the point. We are abandoning the European alliance in favor of Putin and everyone knows it. They see the writing on the wall.
Happy Hollandaise everyone