Russische Spione „auf ständiger Mission, Chaos auf britischen und europäischen Straßen zu stiften“, sagt MI5

> Russian spies are “on a sustained mission to generate mayhem in British and European streets”, the head of MI5 has said.

> Ken McCallum said that as the war in Ukraine continues, the security services were seeing “Putin’s henchmen seeking to strike elsewhere in the misguided hope of weakening Western resolve”.

> The expulsion of more than 750 Russian diplomats from Europe since Russia invaded Ukraine has put a “big dent in the Russian intelligence services’ ability to cause damage in the West”, he said.

> As a result, malign states such as Russia – and Iran – have increasingly turned to criminal elements to carry out their “dirty work”.

> The MI5 director general said Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, deemed responsible for the 2018 chemical weapon attack in Salisbury against double agent Sergei Skripal that resulted in the death of local woman Dawn Sturgess, has been active in the recruitment of criminals.

> “The GRU in particular is on a sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets,” he said. “We’ve seen arson, sabotage and more. Dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness.”

> Seven people have been charged over a Russia-linked arson attack on a Ukrainian business at an industrial unit in Leyton, east London, on March 20.

> Two of them were charged under the National Security Act 2023, the first case to involve alleged offences under the new legislation.

> With a stark warning for anyone considering working for Russia, Mr McCallum said: “If you take money from Iran, Russia or any other state to carry out illegal acts in the UK, you will bring the full weight of the national security apparatus down on you. It’s a choice you’ll regret.”

> Giving his annual speech on threats facing the UK, from the government’s Counter-Terrorism Operations Centre in West London, Mr McCallum said the law enforcement and security services were “powerfully alive” to the risk that events in the Middle East could trigger a terror attack in the UK.

> He said al-Qaeda has sought to capitalise on the conflict in the Middle East by calling for violent action and that his staff would give their fullest attention to the risk of an increase in Iranian state aggression in the UK.

> Since the start of 2022, MI5 has helped to disrupt 20 Iran-backed plots presenting lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents.

> Speaking a day after the first anniversary of the Hamas attacks in Israel, the spy chief said “the ripples from conflict in that region will not necessarily arrive at our shores in a straightforward fashion. They will be filtered through the lens of online media and mixed with existing views and grievances in unpredictable ways.”

> Elsewhere in his speech, Mr McCallum said security services must keep access to online communications, in the face of calls for greater encryption and privacy, otherwise “terrorists will be able to operate at scale without fear of consequence. Privacy and exceptional lawful access can coexist if absolutist positions are avoided,” he said. “World-class encryption experts are confident of this.”

> Mr McCallum also revealed there has been a threefold increase in the number of under-18s investigated by his agency for involvement in terrorism over the last three years.

> Extreme Right-wing terrorism “skews heavily towards young people,” he said, “driven by propaganda that shows a canny understanding of online culture”.

> This has resulted in 13 per cent of MI5’s terrorist investigations being against children.

In a country where somewhere between 1 in 100 and 1 in 50 people are illegal immigrants, I think there are way higher priorities than arresting teenagers for being right wing online or worrying about Russian influence. 

14 years of right wing governments and papers like the Telegraph helping them do it.

Considering their adventures in the North of Ireland, MI5 knows a thing or two about that, in fairness.

according to mi5, russian spies are out here trying to cause chaos all over europe it’s like a real-life spy thriller but with a lot more mayhem on the streets not exactly james bond but definitely some serious drama