Assassination plots, sabotage, cyber-attacks and information manipulation by Russia and other hostile countries means “the front line is everywhere”, the new head of MI6 will warn on Monday.
Blaze Metreveli, giving his first speech in office, is expected to say that Britain faces a new “era of uncertainty” where the rules of conflict are being rewritten, especially in light of widespread Kremlin aggression following the invasion of Ukraine.
The agency’s first female head will argue, “The export of chaos is a feature, not a bug, in the Russian approach to international engagement,” and is expected to continue “unless Putin is forced to change his calculations.”
Regarding the scale of the threat, particularly from Russia, similar comments are expected to be made by the Chief of the Defense Staff, Air Chief Marshal Richard Knighton, who is due to say in a separate speech that “the situation is more dangerous than I have known during my career” and call on the entire country to “step up.”
His pre-release comments come as Keir Starmer is set to fly to Berlin for an emergency summit with European leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as well as Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff in a bid to persuade the US to accept an alternative European peace plan for Ukraine.
In his speech, to be released in full on Monday afternoon, Metreveli identified Russia as a serious threat, with an “aggressive, expansionist and revisionist” mentality that has led Vladimir Putin to order an invasion of his neighbor, and to deploy aggressive support tactics across Europe.
The spy chief is expected to say, “Putin should have no doubt: Our support is permanent. The pressure we will exert on Ukraine’s behalf will be sustained.”
The threats Britain faces include an attempt to kill Sergei and Yulia Skripal with nerve poison in Salisbury in 2018, which led to the death of British woman Dawn Sturgess. A public inquiry into the death of Sturgess, who accidentally picked up a poison bottle, concluded this month that the Russian president was “morally responsible”.
These also include Russian efforts to use artificial intelligence to spread mass disinformation, 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 Britain were jailed in May for their part in an espionage plot that included hostile surveillance of an investigative journalist known for Kremlin exposes across Europe and an attempt to retrieve the phone numbers of Ukrainian soldiers training in Germany.
However, in advance excerpts, there was no explicit mention of China other than last week’s sanctions on two companies based in the country accused of engaging in indiscriminate hacking against Britain and its allies.
Ministers are still grappling over whether to allow China to build a new super-embassy at London’s Royal Mint Court, while the prime minister is expected to visit Beijing in January before Trump visits there in April.
Knighton, the country’s top military officer, is also expected to emphasize the threat Russia poses to both Britain and the NATO military alliance in his first annual lecture at the Royal United Services Institute think tank since September.
“The war in Ukraine reflects Putin’s desire to target neighboring states, including civilian populations,” he is expected to say, adding 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 high national priority for all of us”, including more Britons.
Metreveli took over from Richard Moore as head of MI6 in October. She was previously head of MI6’s Technology and Innovation Department, or Q, and spent much of her career in the Middle East and Europe.
The new leaders will also emphasize that the international spy agency has to remain on top of trends in computing, traditionally the domain of its sister agency GCHQ, as well as maintain effective use of human sources of intelligence, its traditional business.
“Mastery of technology must be embedded in everything we do. Not just in our laboratories, but in the field, in our business, and more importantly, in the mindset of every executive. We must be as comfortable with lines of code as we are with human sources, as adept in Python as we are in multiple languages,” he is expected to say.
Pre-released excerpts highlighted a more general reference to the moral dimension of high-tech power, though aides said it was not a coded criticism of Donald Trump’s White House, but a call for a whole-of-society approach to technological development.
The new chief will say, “The defining challenge of the 21st century is not just who wields the most powerful technologies, but who guides them with the greatest intelligence. Our security, our prosperity, and our humanity depend on it.”
The detective chief is expected to say that “we all have choices moving forward” and that ,It will be the rediscovery of our shared humanity, our ability to listen, and our courage that will determine what our future will be like.
