New chief of Britain’s MI6 warns of threat from Russian hybrid warfare
The use of hybrid warfare tactics was the most dangerous aspect of the threat posed by an “aggressive, expansionist and revisionist” Russia, MI6 chief Blaise Metreweli was set to say Monday in her first speech since taking over at Britain’s spy agency in October. File photo courtesy U.K. Foreign Office/EPA-EFE
Dec. 15 (UPI) — Incoming spy chief Blaise Metreweli will use her first speech as head of MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service, to warn of the grave threat from Russia, particularly from its use of hybrid warfare.
The agency’s first woman head was set to warn of what she called “an acute threat posed by an aggressive, expansionist and revisionist Russia” and that its use of cyberattacks and drones meant “the frontline was everywhere.”
Metreweli, who took over from the outgoing “C,” Sir Richard Moore, on Oct. 1, will detail incidents of hacking and flying of drones near vital infrastructure by Russian proxies as examples of its use of hybrid tactics.
Russia has been waging this type of low-grade war on Ukraine‘s Western allies since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, according to analysts, flying drones into NATO airspace neighboring Ukraine, disrupting flights by allegedly flying drones near European airports and cutting undersea cables.
In Britain, this has included recruiting Britons to spy for it, allegedly paying individuals to carry out an arson attack on a factory in London owned by Ukrainians and pointing lasers at RAF jets tracking Russian spy ships.
Speaking at MI6 HQ in central London, Metreweli was expected to vow Britain would not let up its campaign to impede Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression against Ukraine, noting recent sanctions imposed on Russian organizations and individuals the government believes were involved in information warfare.
“The export of chaos is a feature not a bug in the Russian approach to international engagement; and we should be ready for this to continue until Putin is forced to change his calculus,” she is expected to say.
As expected, Metreweli, who previously served as MI6’s technology and innovation lead, made famous by the character “Q” in the James Bond movie franchise, will stress the key role technology must play going forward.
She will urge intelligence officers to become technology experts “not just in our labs, but in the field, in our tradecraft.”
“We must be as comfortable with lines of code as we are with human sources, as fluent in Python [the computer progamming language] as we are in multiple languages.”
In September, MI6 launched Silent Courier, a secure messaging platform on the dark web, enabling spies to anonymously upload information useful to British intelligence from anywhere in the world. A YouTube video tutorial accompanied the launch.
Britain was, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said “bolstering their efforts with cutting-edge tech so MI6 can recruit new spies for the United Kingdom — in Russia and around the world.”
The service also carried the following disclaimer from the Foreign Office.
“MI6 advises individuals accessing its portal to use trustworthy VPNs and devices not linked to themselves, to mitigate risks which exist in some countries.
“Do not use a name, phone number or other data linked to your real identity when creating this account,” it added.