‘The entrance line is in all places’: Russia is waging a brand new kind of warfare exporting chaos, warns new MI6 boss in first speech
Britain faces an ‘age of uncertainty’ as an ‘expansionist’ Russia wages a new type of warfare exporting ‘chaos’, the new head of the MI6 warns today.
In her first public speech, Blaise Metreweli will say today that the ‘front line is everywhere’ for MI6 as the rules of conflict are being rewritten by Russia and other hostile states.
The new spy chief, who is the first woman to lead MI6 in its history, is set to call out the acute threat posed by an ‘aggressive, expansionist, and revisionist’ Russia under President Vladimir Putin.
Describing Putin’s regime as an exporter of ‘chaos’, she will outline how Britain faces a new hybrid threat landscape as Russia wages information warfare.
Speaking at MI6’s headquarters today, Ms Metreweli wants to send a message to Putin that Britain will continue to stand by Ukraine.
‘Putin should be in no doubt, our support is enduring. The pressure we apply on Ukraine’s behalf will be sustained,’ she will say.
‘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.’
Blaise Metreweli, the first ever female Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)
The new chief known as C, will highlight the importance of technology in tackling new threats to the UK’s security.
Describing how MI6 spies need to be as adept in understanding the Python programming language as they are in persuading agents to divulge secrets, she will say: ‘Mastery of technology must infuse everything we do. Not just in our labs, but in the field, in our tradecraft, and even more importantly, in the mindset of every officer.
‘We must be as comfortable with lines of code as we are with human sources, as fluent in Python as we are in multiple languages.’
Ms Metreweli will describe how Britain faces an increasingly complex and interconnected nature of global threats, ranging from technological disruption and hybrid threats to terrorism and information manipulation.
She believes the UK must build partnerships and harness emerging technology needed to stay ahead of our adversaries.
Britain has recently sanctioned several Russian entities delivering the Kremlin’s information warfare, and two China-based companies for indiscriminate cyber activities against the UK and its allies.
Concluding the speech, Ms Metreweli will say: ‘The defining challenge of the twenty-first century is not simply who wields the most powerful technologies, but who guides them with the greatest wisdom.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is exporting ‘chaos’, according to MI6
‘Our security, our prosperity and our humanity depend on it.
‘We all have choices to make ahead about how we deal with the undercurrents shaping the world. About how, in our new, faster, more dangerous and tech mediated world, it will be our rediscovery of our shared humanity, our ability to listen, and our courage that will determine how our future unfolds.
‘It is not what we can do that defines us, but what we choose to do. That choice – the exercise of human agency – has shaped our world before, and it will shape it again.’
