MI6 spymaster cautions Russia but eyes China’s growing power
ST ANDREWS, SCOTLAND: The chief of Britain’s foreign intelligence service warned the Kremlin on Monday 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 to head the Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, Alex Younger, ranged across the global threats faced by Britain as it prepares to exit the European Union in less than four months.
Russia, the only national adversary named in his scripted speech, has a stance of “perpetual confrontation” with the West, said Younger, citing the nerve agent attack on former Russian agent Sergei Skripal in March in the English city of Salisbury.
Western allies ordered the biggest expulsion of Russian diplomats since the height of the Cold War in response to the attack, in which Britain said Russian GRU military intelligence agents had used the Novichok nerve agent against Skripal.
“The Russian state used a military-grade chemical weapon on UK soil,” Younger told students at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, where he once studied economics and computer science before joining the British army and then MI6.
“Our intention is for the Russian state to conclude that, whatever the benefits it thinks it is accruing from this activity, they are not worth the risk,” said Younger.
Moscow has repeatedly denied any involvement and accused British intelligence agencies of staging the attack to stoke anti-russian hysteria.
Skripal, an officer in Russian military intelligence, betrayed dozens of spies to MI6, though he was later pardoned and exchanged in a Cold War-style spy swap.
The motive of the attack remains unclear, as is the logic of using such an exotic nerve agent, which has overt links to Russia’s Soviet past.
“I should emphasise that even as the Russian state seeks to destabilise us, we do not seek to destabilise Russia. We do not seek escalation,” Younger said.
Younger, 55, also said that Britain’s spies have thwarted multiple IS plots originating overseas.
MI6 continues to work with partner agencies to strengthen “indispensable security ties” in Europe, he said, adding that Britain had helped France and Germany prevent terrorist attacks.