UK could face Russian aggression for years to come, warns MI5 boss

The UK “must be ready for Russian aggression for years to come”, the boss of MI5 warned as he laid bare the “very real threat” posed by hostile states.

Director general Ken Mccallum said the UK is in a contest with “adversaries who have massive scale and are not squeamish about the tactics they deploy”, setting out in stark language the dangers from Russia, China and Iran.

In a speech from the security agency’s Thames House headquarters in London yesterday, Mr Mccallum said there have been at least ten potential plots this year by Iranian intelligence services to kidnap or kill British or “Uk-based” people considered “enemies of the regime”.

Although he stressed Russian president Vladimir Putin is “not winning” the war in Ukraine, Mr Mccallum said: “The serious point is that the UK must be ready for Russian aggression for years to come.

“Some of that will be covert aggression for MI5 to detect and tackle. But much of it … will be overt. Our national resilience, brought into sharp focus by Covid, is a vital asset in which we must invest.”

More than 600 Russian officials have been expelled from Europe since February, with more than 400 judged to be spies.

This “struck the most significant strategic blow against the Russian intelligence services in recent European history,” Mr Mccallum said, though he added: “We shouldn’t be complacent.”

In the UK, 23 Russian spies posing as diplomats were removed and 100 more Russians were denied diplomatic visas on national security grounds. Mr Mccallum added: “They will keep attacking us.”