Russians against Ukraine war should spy for the UK, MI6 boss says

Britain’s ‘door is always open’ to Russian defectors, says Richard Moore

The head of MI6 has urged Russians appalled by the war in Ukraine to “join hands” with his spy service and bring the bloodshed to an end.

In his second speech since becoming chief of the Secret Intelligence Service in 2020, Richard Moore said there appeared little prospect of Vladimir Putin’s forces regaining momentum in Ukraine – and expressed optimism about Kyiv’s long-awaited counteroffensive.

Delivering his speech at the British embassy in Prague, the MI6 chief likened the current situation in Ukraine to the Prague Spring in 1968, when the Soviet Union quashed liberalising reforms.

“As they witness the venality, infighting and callous incompetence of their leaders – the human factor as its worst – many Russians are wrestling with the same dilemmas as their predecessors did in 1968,” Moore said.

“I invite them to do what others have done this past 18 months and join hands with us. Our door is always open ... Their secrets will be safe with us and together we will work to bring the bloodshed to an end.”

While Mr Putin has sought to maintain an iron grip on the war narrative since Russia’s full-scale invasion last February, with the aid of state TV, public opinion of the conflict is likely to have been knocked by Moscow’s apparent military setbacks and his mobilisation of reservists last Septmeber.

Many fighting age men have fled abroad to escape the draft, while thousands of protesters have been arrested at infrequent demonstrations launched across scores of Russian cities since the war began even despite the prospect of swift state repression.

“There are many Russians today who are silently appalled by the sight of their armed forces pulverising Ukrainian cities, expelling innocent families from their homes and kidnapping thousands of children,” said Mr Moore.

Richard Moore, the Chief of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, has appealed to disillusioned Russians to ‘join hands’ with MI6 (AP)

“They are watching in horror as their soldiers ravage a kindred country. They know in their hearts that Putin’s case for attacking a fellow Slavic nation is fraudulent, a miasma of lies and fantasy.”

Appealing for such individuals to work alongside the MI6, he added: “We will handle their offers of help with the discretion and professionalism for which my service is famed.”

Despite the best efforts of the Russian state to shield citizens from Moscow’s military failures, an awareness of several attacks on Russian soil – including two on Mr Putin’s prized Kerch bridge in Crimea, and the Wagner mercenary group’s armed mutiny last month – have filtered through.

The shortlived rebellion by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his mercenaries – whose relative military successes in Ukraine have boosted their popularity within Russia – showed Mr Putin was “clearly under pressure”, Mr Moore said.

Yevgeny Prigozhin seized the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don last month and began to march on Moscow, before striking an 11th-hour deal apparently brokered by Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko (via REUTERS)

Criticising the wave of “Russian imperialism” in Africa fuelled in recent years by the Wagner group, Mr Moore also claimed Iran’s “unconscionable” decision to supply Moscow with suicide drones for the Ukraine war had provoked internal quarrels at the highest level of the regime in Tehran.

Also denouncing the Russian president’s nuclear sabre-rattling as “irresponsible and reckless”, the spy chief also warned that Moscow and China were racing to master technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing.

Some of Britain’s adversaries will try to develop AI in a way which is reckless and dangerous, he told Politico, adding: “It will be a significant part of our role going forward into the future, to try and ... detect, uncover, and then disrupt people who would like to develop AI in directions which are dangerous.”

But while government and intelligence agencies globally are seeking to harness the power of AI, Mr Moore told those present in Prague that the technology would complement rather replace human agents –who can uncover secrets beyond technology’s reach.

“The unique characteristics of human agents in the right places will become still more significant,” he said.

“They are never just passive collectors of information: our agents can be tasked and directed; they can identify new questions we didn’t know to ask; and sometimes they can influence decisions inside a government or terrorist group.

“Human intelligence in the age of artificial intelligence will increasingly be defined as those things that machines cannot do, albeit we should expect the frontier of machine capability to advance with startling speed.”

Additional reporting by agencies