The frontline is everywhere': new MI6 head to warn of growing Russian threat

"Assassination plots, sabotage, cyber-attacks and the manipulation of information by Russia and other hostile states mean that the frontline is everywhere, the new head of MI6 will warn on Monday. Blaise Metreweli, giving her first speech in the job, is expected to say the UK faces a new age of uncertainty where the rules of conflict are being rewritten, particularly in light of wider Kremlin aggression after the invasion of Ukraine."

"The export of chaos is a feature, not a bug, in the Russian approach to international engagement, the agency's first female chief will argue, and until Putin is forced to change his calculus it is expected to continue. Similar comments about the scale of the threat, particularly from Russia, are expected to be made by Air Chief Marshal Richard Knighton, the chief of the defence staff."

Blaise Metreweli is the new head of MI6 and the agency's first female chief. She warns that assassination plots, sabotage, cyber-attacks and manipulation of information by Russia and other hostile states make the frontline everywhere. Russia pursues an aggressive, expansionist and revisionist mindset that led to the invasion of Ukraine and uses the export of chaos as a deliberate tactic. The tactic is expected to continue until Vladimir Putin changes his calculus. The chief of the defence staff describes the situation as unusually dangerous and calls for the country to step up. Diplomatic uncertainty in the US complicates sustained pressure on Russia, while threats to the UK include the attempt to kill Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury.

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