Britain may already be in a form of war with Russia, according to a former head of MI5, the UK’s domestic security agency, Eliza Manningham-Buller, citing extensive cyber-attacks, and sabotage.
Appearing on a podcast with Lord Speaker John McFall, Manningham-Buller echoed Russia expert Fiona Hill:
I think she may be right in saying we’re already at war with Russia. It’s a different sort of war, but the hostility, the cyber-attacks, the physical attacks, the intelligence work is extensive.
U.S. president Donald Trump’s former Russia advisor, Hill argued earlier this year that Moscow is at war with the West.
Recent cases highlight Moscow’s reach: six Bulgarians in the UK were jailed for running a spy network conducting hostile surveillance across Europe, and five men were convicted for an arson attack on a warehouse holding supplies for Ukraine, reportedly ordered by Russia.
In recent weeks, several alleged Russian espionage cases have emerged across Europe. In Latvia, authorities detained a man suspected of revealing NATO troop locations and other sensitive information to Moscow, while last week Austrian oil and gas company OMV dismissed an employee accused of spying for Russia.
During her tenure as MI5 chief, Manningham-Buller initially hoped Russian President Vladimir Putin would act as a potential partner for the West. Reflecting on her 2005 meeting with Putin, she admitted
I didn’t anticipate that within a year he’d be ordering the murder on London streets of [Alexander] Litvinenko, but I thought he was quite an unpleasant man.
Manningham-Buller also criticized UK and U.S. aid cuts, warning that withdrawing soft power creates opportunities for rivals such as China to expand their influence.
