Russia on mission to cause mayhem on UK streets …warns MI5

Russia’s intelli­gence agency has been on a mis­sion to generate “sustained mayhem on British and European streets,” the head of MI5 has said.

Giving his annual update on security threats faced by the UK, Ken McCallum said GRU agents had carried out “arson, sabotage and more dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness” in Britain after the UK backed Ukraine in its war with Russia.

MI5 had also responded to 20 plots backed by Iran since 2022, he said, although he added the majority of its work still most­ly involved Islamist extremism followed by extreme right-wing terrorism.

The complex mix of terror-re­lated threats and threats from nation states meant MI5 had “one hell of a job on its hands”, he warned.

There was a “dizzying range of beliefs and ideologies” MI5 had to deal with, he told the briefing at MI5’s counter-terrorism opera­tions centre in London.

“The first 20 years of my career here were crammed full of terror­ist threats.

“We now face those alongside state-backed assassination and sab­otage plots, against the backdrop of a major European land war,” he said.

The UK’s “leading role” in sup­porting Ukraine means “we loom large in the fevered imagination of Putin’s regime” and further acts of aggression on UK soil should be expected, he warned.

The UK’s current terror threat level is substantial – meaning an attack is likely. —BBC