MI6 chief warns of Russia’s ambitions beyond Ukraine

UK MI6 chief Richard Moore has said that if allowed, Russia won’t stop at just having Ukraine. “If Putin is allowed to succeed in reducing Ukraine to a vassal state, he will not stop there. Our security—British, French, European, and transatlantic—will be jeopardized,” Moore shared his views at a speech. He was addressing people at the UK embassy in Paris alongside his French counterpart.

Richard Moore has suggestions for the President-Elect

In what is seen as a plea to the upcoming Trump administration, Richard Moore cautioned that forsaking Ukraine will involve long-term security costs. In a way, supporting Kyiv at this critical time period was just right for the President-elect to go for, according to the UK secret service intelligence chief. And the costs, going by the MI6 chief’s above statement, would involve despotism at its worst being introduced in the European hinterland.

North Korean troops are already present on the Russian soil and the main British concern, according to Moore, was to see the Ukraine war from the wider perspective of a rising China. “The cost of supporting Ukraine is well known,” said Richard Moore. “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.”

In any case, the US President-elect has already expressed his displeasure at the rising expenses while supporting Kyiv. Often, Trump has said that he is in favor of ending the war as soon as possible, even “within 24 hours.” As proposed by JD Vance, the vice president-elect, NATO membership should be denied to Ukraine for a long time, as well as stopping the war at the current borders between the two nations.

Kremlin, this month put forward the reason for the Russian invasion of Ukraine being the presence of NATO on the latter’s soil in 2022. The intrusive policy of the NATO, according to Russia, was to “create a staging ground against Russia on Ukrainian soil.” In the same vein, Moscow says that its pre-conditions about Ukraine remain unchanged.

The demands include demilitarization and denazifying Ukraine and the reduction of the Ukrainian Army to a number of 50,000. Also, the claims regarding the territories of four eastern and southern Ukrainian provinces, Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk, stand unflinched. Out of these regions, only one fourth is now fully occupied by the Russian forces.

A package widely believed to have origins in Russia has revealed a hidden incendiary device to sabotage a DHL warehouse in Birmingham. This, according to Richard Moore, was reason enough to believe that Putin was there to challenge the might of the west. Western spy agencies, he said earlier, had “recently uncovered a staggeringly reckless campaign of Russian sabotage in Europe.” The above incident at one of the British provinces was apart from arson, assassination, and kidnapping plots by Russia confirmed by these agencies.

This is also apart from upping the ante on the possible use of nuclear devices as a means to stop other nations from supporting Ukraine. However, Moscow doesn’t accept the responsibility of the happenings in Britain and the Russian embassy declined responding to Richard Moore’s statements.

Meanwhile, the top spy chief, Richard Moore, was of the opinion that the collective strength of the allied countries in unison could pressurize Putin. Thus, Putin can be prevented in his efforts towards becoming a pawn for China, North Korea, and Iran.

According to Richard Moore, a number of factors, like the nuclear ambitions of Iran and the fundamentalistic effect of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on the state of Israel, prove beyond doubt about the rise of the Islamic State. He said that the world was nowadays more engulfed in a perilous state within his 37-year-long stint in the intelligence department.

The head of France’s foreign spy agency DGSE, Nicolas Lerner, has said that the French and UK intelligence agencies are working in unison “to face what is undoubtedly one of the threats – if not the threat – in my opinion, the possible atomic proliferation in Iran.” However, Iran is in a denial mode over its quest for nuclear weapons.  

Normally, a five-year stint at MI6 was only four years for the top intelligence job. Richard Grenell, former Trump adviser and the acting director of national intelligence, had been thought to be suitable for the post. This was at the beginning of Richard Moore’s tenure.

As of now, at the crucial juncture in transatlantic relations, former Labor minister Peter Mandelson was put forward as a choice for the post of UK ambassador to the US. This comes at a time when the MI6 chief was said to be the probable choice despite his reluctance to go for it.

Recently, British PM Keir Starmer met French President Emmanuel Macron in France and the presence of the UK MI6 chief in the French capital shows how much both countries accord importance to the equations between them. The latter’s presence has added impetus to the talks revolving around Ukraine, which were held between the two counterparts. In the backdrop of the Republicans in the US wishing for a peacekeeping role for the European soldiers, the talks were significant.

Richard Moore, while talking at the UK embassy in Paris, told the people, “For decades the US-UK intelligence alliance has made our societies safer; I worked successfully with the first Trump administration to advance our shared security and look forward to doing so again.”

Expectations about the steadfastness of the UK-US intelligence cooperation were sought by the intelligence chief, even in the face of political tensions. The MI6 top spy concluded with shared importance accorded to the intelligence cooperation between France and the UK, while speaking at the 120^th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale.