Russia is on a ‘mission to generate mayhem’ on British soil, the head of MI5 warned yesterday.
In a chilling speech, Ken McCallum said the security service has ‘one hell of a job’ to do battling enemies such as Vladimir Putin’s ‘henchmen’.
The spy chief also said that the country faces a ‘staggering’ terror threat from children – with minors as young as 13 being poisoned by online extremism.
And he warned of a surge in plots from the Islamic State terrorist group and nations such as Iran.
In the last year alone, MI5 has seen investigations into hostile state threats soar by almost 50 per cent with a leap in assassination and sabotage plots.
Describing today’s landscape as ‘the most complex and interconnected threat environment we’ve ever seen’, Mr McCallum warned that Kremlin spies are seeking to strike Britain.
In his annual assessment, he said: ‘The UK’s leading role in supporting Ukraine means we loom large in the fevered imagination of Putin’s regime and we should expect to see continued acts of aggression here at home.’
Ken McCallum, (pictured) Director General of MI5, delivers a speech at the Counter Terrorism Operations Centre in west London
Russia is on a ‘mission to generate mayhem’ on British soil, the head of MI5 warned yesterday. Pictured: Vladimir Putin holds his papers during the Summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on October 8
Russian intelligence agents are operating with ‘increasing recklessness’ as he warned: ‘[They] are on a sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets.’
The country also faces increased threats from Iran with MI5 seeing ‘plot after plot [at] unprecedented pace and scale’.
There have been 20 Iranian-backed plots posing a lethal threat to journalists and dissidents in Britain since January 2022.
Iran Iran is also plotting attacks at ‘an unprecedented pace and scale’ with the risk that state aggression could ‘broaden’ due to the Middle East conflict, he warned.
‘We’ve seen plot after plot here in the UK at unprecedented pace and scale,’ Mr McCallum said.
Both Iran and Russia are using criminal proxies, from international drug traffickers to ‘low-level crooks’, to carry out their ‘dirty work’ in the UK, he added.
Ken McCallum said the security service has ‘one hell of a job’ to do battling enemies such as Vladimir Putin’s ‘henchmen’ – Putin pictured during the Summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
Mr McCallum said: ‘Detecting criminals prepared to have their strings pulled by states has at least some similarities to spotting would-be terrorists dancing to the tune of online radicalisers.
‘It is a familiar challenge. We’ll keep finding them.’
The spymaster issued a stark warning to anyone collaborating with a hostile state: ‘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.’
Speaking at the Counter Terrorism Operations Centre in London, Mr McCallum highlighted the risk that Iran could try to repurpose its criminal proxies to target Britons if there was further escalation in the Middle East.
He said the security agency was ‘powerfully alive to the risk that events in the Middle East directly trigger terrorist action in the UK.’
Although he said: ‘We haven’t – yet – seen this translate at scale into terrorist violence.’
In a wide-ranging speech, Mr McCallum warned Al-Qaeda was trying to capitalise on the conflict to call for violent action.
The Islamic State terror group has ‘resumed efforts to export terrorism’ to the West.
The spy chief said that the country faces a ‘staggering’ terror threat from children – with minors as young as 13 being poisoned by online extremism. Pictured: An Iranian boy wearing a keffiyeh and holding a toy gun
Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launchers roll on Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in central Moscow
Both groups have ‘the numbers and the know-how to carry out, or inspire, horrendous mass casualty attacks’, MI5 assess.
He said the worsening threat from both groups is the ‘terrorist trend that concerns me most.’
Speaking a day after the first anniversary of the Hamas attacks in Israel, Mr McCallum 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.’
Overall, MI5 and the police have disrupted 43 late-stage attack plots since March 2017 saving numerous lives.
Mr McCallum added: ‘Some of those plotters were trying to get hold of firearms and explosives, in the final days of planning mass murder.’
Outlining the range of threats, he said: ‘MI5’s operational focus sits within a much wider online context: the insidious effect of internet hatred and disinformation has played into threats to election candidates, intimidation of communities, and the public disorder that followed the sickening attack in Southport.’
But the spy chief told reporters that MI5 had found no evidence of hostile state involvement in the riots during the Summer, nor in the targeting of candidates during the general election.
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