Security in the United States will be at risk if Vladimir Putin succeeds in Ukraine, the head of Britain’s secret intelligence service has said in a warning for Donald Trump.
Sir Richard Moore said Russia would not stop at Ukraine’s borders and he said China would “weigh the implications, North Korea would be emboldened and Iran would become still more dangerous”.
The spy chief offered warm words to the incoming US administration though, using an annual public speech to say he had worked successfully with the first Trump White House and that he is “looking forward to doing so again”.
As well as talking about Ukraine, the head of MI6 – or Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) – also raised the alarm about:
• A “staggeringly reckless campaign of Russian sabotage in Europe”
• The potential for terrorism in the UK and across the continent inspired by the loss of innocent life in Gaza and Lebanon
• Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions and its desire to “eliminate dissidents, home and abroad”.
Sir Richard said: “In 37 years in the intelligence profession, I’ve never seen the world in a more dangerous state.”
Appearing at the British embassy in Paris with Nicholas Lerner, the head of France’s foreign intelligence agency, the DGSE, the British spy chief touched on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“Nicholas and I are in no doubt about the stakes in Ukraine: if Putin is allowed to succeed in reducing Ukraine to a vassal state, he will not stop there,” he said.
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“Our security – British, French, European and transatlantic – will be jeopardised. The cost of supporting Ukraine is well known, but the cost of not doing so would be infinitely higher.
“If Putin succeeds, China would weigh the implications, North Korea would be emboldened, and Iran would become still more dangerous.”
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Mr Trump, who will return to the White House in January, has promised to end the war “quickly” – though he has not explained how.
This week, though, the US president-elect revealed he planned to appoint Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, 80, a retired senior commander who served in the last Trump administration, as his Ukraine envoy to Ukraine and Russia.
General Kellogg co-wrote a paper in April that said the US should negotiate a ceasefire in Ukraine. One part of the plan was to make the continuation of US weapons to support Kyiv contingent upon the Ukrainian government participating in peace talks.
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Sir Richard again highlighted the danger posed by Russian sabotage operations across Europe, strengthening his language even further from previous public remarks made in September alongside the head of the CIA when he called the activity “reckless” and “feral”.
This time, he said: “We have recently uncovered a staggeringly reckless campaign of Russian sabotage in Europe even as Putin and his acolytes resort to nuclear sabre rattling to sow fear about the consequences of aiding Ukraine and challenge Western resolve in doing so.
“Such activity and rhetoric is dangerous and beyond irresponsible.”
The spymaster offered a sense of how British and French intelligence is helping to inform their respective governments to deal with the Russian threat.
“SIS and DGSE intelligence has been critical to calibrating risk and informing the decisions of our respective governments so they can navigate successfully Putin’s mix of bluster and aggression,” he said.
Turning to other areas of concern, Sir Richard raised the prospect of Israel’s war in Gaza and Lebanon against Hamas and Hezbollah respectively – in which many civilian lives have also been lost – triggering terrorist attacks in Europe.
“We have yet to have a full reckoning with the radicalising impact of the fighting and terrible loss of innocent life in the Middle East after the horrors of October 7,” he said.
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He also spoke about the threat posed by Iran – the chief backer of Hezbollah and Hamas.
“Iran’s allied militias across the Middle East have suffered serious blows but the regime’s nuclear ambitions continue to threaten all of us, especially friends of France and the UK in the region and the Iranian regime maintains its efforts to eliminate dissidents home and abroad,” he said.
The head of MI6 only gave brief and relatively mild remarks about China – which by stark contrast is viewed by the Trump regime as the primary global security threat.
“We must navigate the rise of an increasingly assertive China which sometimes competes with our interest and whose values often do not align with our own,” Sir Richard said.
