Russian security threat to UK ‘goes beyond Salisbury’

Anti-terrorism chief warns that 2018 Novichok attack was just the ‘front end’ of plots targeting Britain

THE Russian threat to the UK is “much wider” than the Skripal nerve-agent poisoning, warns an anti-terror chief.

Moscow is now targeting elements of British life that are “underpinning the economic stability of the nation”, said Assistant Chief Constable Tim Jacques.

Mr Jacques said the attempted assassination of double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March 2018, was just the “front end” of malign Russian plots in the UK.

Speaking at a security conference in London, the deputy senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing said 42 innocent people had been killed in terrorist attacks since 2017, including Dawn Sturgess, who died after being exposed to Novichok in the Salisbury attack.

Detectives last week named Denis Sergeev as the third member of the Russian military intelligence squad sent to kill Col Skripal.

Mr Jacques warned the threat extended beyond direct assassinations.

“In terms of the whole host of elements used to try and attack the UK and UK interests from those states seeking their own advantage, the threat to the UK from Russia is much wider, much deeper and much more concerning,” he said. As a result of the Covid lockdowns, security officials are increasingly worried about “people losing themselves in the internet” and being “taken advantage of by terrorist groups who want to influence, promote their ideology and draw people in”, Mr Jacques added.

“Nobody is born a terrorist. What is the thing that makes these people become terrorists? From where do they draw their influence, the radicalisation to get drawn down that dark line where they end up wanting to commit indiscriminate mass murder? We generally have concerns that lots of people spend lots of time researching and being drawn further down the dark hole of ideology.

“The threat that they pose, as a consequence, will endure for some time.”

In the year to June 2021, there have been 181 arrests for terrorism offences in the UK.

Of these 47 per cent were Islamist extremists, with 35 per cent attributed to extreme Right-wing terrorism.

Of the total, 13 per cent were under 18 years of age. Since March 2017, security forces have disrupted 31 alleged terrorist plots.

Nick Bailey, the former detective sergeant who was poisoned by Novichok as a result of the attack on the Skripals, told the conference he knew he was seriously unwell when he saw “a tsunami of fire” and felt intense heat after two days in hospital.

He said he was “not surprised they’ve found somebody else” involved in the attack and praised the ongoing investigation team that is still examining the circumstances around the poisoning.