ANALYSIS

BRITAIN’S guard against Russia has increasingly dropped since the fall of the Soviet Union.

A naive belief overtook our political leaders, as with communist China, that greater inclusion in the international order would turn them from opponents to friends of the West.

This optimistic attitude was created by decades of Soviet influence across society, from universities to government institutions to industry. Another factor in permitting the Russian danger to increase was the growing threat from terrorism in the years since 9/11. Not only did this distract from apparently less immediate challenges, but police and intelligence services necessarily focused huge amounts of their finite resources on it.

One of Russia’s primary objectives is to divide and weaken Nato. Divisions resulting from antagonism between Europe and the US, largely as a result of European states’ failure to pay their way, play directly into Russia’s hands.

Russia has also sought to subvert from within the main international bodies, such as UN and Interpol, to discredit them and reduce their effectiveness to Russia’s advantage.

Efforts to subvert British society did not end with the demise of the Soviet Union.

Many networks were simply taken over by Russia, such as long-term deep-cover agents.

Vitally important now are robust measures not only to defend against Russian aggression but to allow our security services to take the offensive against their depredations.