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New MI6 Chief Sounds Alarm on Russia’s “Everywhere” Frontline
London, UK – Britain’s newly appointed spy chief, Blaise Metreweli, is set to deliver a stark warning regarding the escalating threat posed by Russia, particularly its pervasive use of “hybrid warfare.” In her inaugural speech as head of MI6, the United Kingdom’s foreign intelligence service, Metreweli will emphasize that the “frontline is everywhere” due to Russia’s deployment of cyberattacks and drones.
Metreweli, who assumed leadership of MI6 on October 1st, stepping into the role previously held by Sir Richard Moore, is the agency’s first female chief. She is expected to describe Russia as “an acute threat posed by an aggressive, expansionist and revisionist Russia,” detailing incidents of hacking and drone activity near critical infrastructure by Russian proxies as prime examples of these hybrid tactics.
Analysts suggest that Russia has been engaged in this low-grade warfare against Ukraine’s Western allies since its full-scale invasion in 2022. This has included drones flying into NATO airspace bordering Ukraine, alleged disruptions of flights near European airports, and the severing of undersea cables. Within Britain, specific examples include the recruitment of British citizens to spy for Russia, alleged payments for an arson attack on a Ukrainian-owned factory in London, and the targeting of RAF jets tracking Russian spy ships with lasers.
Speaking from MI6 headquarters in central London, Metreweli is anticipated to reaffirm Britain’s unwavering commitment to impeding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression against Ukraine. She will likely highlight recent sanctions imposed on Russian organizations and individuals believed to be involved in information warfare. “The export of chaos is a feature not a bug in the Russian approach to international engagement; and we should be ready for this to continue until Putin is forced to change his calculus,” Metreweli is expected to state.
The new MI6 chief, who previously led the agency’s technology and innovation division – a role famously embodied by the character “Q” in the James Bond series – will also underscore the crucial role of technology in future intelligence operations. She will urge intelligence officers to become technology experts, not just in laboratories, but “in the field, in our tradecraft.” Metreweli plans to emphasize the need for officers to be “as comfortable with lines of code as we are with human sources, as fluent in Python [the computer programming language] as we are in multiple languages.”
In September, MI6 launched “Silent Courier,” a secure messaging platform on the dark web, designed to allow spies to anonymously upload intelligence to British authorities from any global location. The launch was accompanied by a YouTube tutorial.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper affirmed that Britain is “bolstering their efforts with cutting-edge tech so MI6 can recruit new spies for the United Kingdom – in Russia and around the world.” MI6 advises individuals accessing its portal to utilize trustworthy VPNs and devices not linked to their personal identity, and to avoid using any real names, phone numbers, or other identifying data when creating an account, to mitigate risks in certain countries.