The chief of Britain’s foreign intelligence service yesterday warned the Kremlin not to underestimate the West, after a brazen nerve agent attack on a retired double agent in England stoked fears about Russian covert activity abroad.
In his second major speech since being named in 2014 as chief of the UK Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Alex Younger said that Russia has a stance of “perpetual confrontation” with the West.
After the attack on Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer who betrayed dozens of agents to MI6, Britain’s allies in Europe and the US took its part and ordered the biggest expulsion of Russian diplomats since the height of the Cold War, he said.
Britain identified the nerve agent deployed in the town of Salisbury, England, as Novichok, a highly potent group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s.
Moscow has repeatedly denied involvement and accused British intelligence agencies of staging the attack to stoke anti-Russian hysteria.
However, Younger urged “Russia or any other state intent on subverting our way of life not to underestimate our determination and our capabilities, or those of our allies,” excerpts of the speech showed.
Speaking at St Andrews University, where he once studied, Younger, 55, said that UK spies have thwarted multiple Islamic State group plots originating overseas.
Less than four months before the UK is due to leave the EU on March 29, Younger also said that MI6 would continue to work with partner agencies to strengthen “indispensable security ties” in Europe.
MI6, the home of fictional spies such as John le Carre’s George Smiley and Ian Fleming’s James Bond, has the job of defending the UK, and its interests, abroad.
A career spy who joined MI6 as the Soviet Union was crumbling, Younger said that espionage must embrace the new.
“The era of the fourth industrial revolution calls for a fourth-generation espionage: fusing our traditional human skills with accelerated innovation, new partnerships and a mindset that mobilizes diversity and empowers the young,” Younger said.
“I want to speak to young people who have never seen themselves in MI6... If you want to make a difference and you think you might have what it takes, then the chances are that you do have what it takes, and we hope you will step forward,” he added.
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