US Edition
The chief of MI6 issued an unprecedented clarion call to Russians disaffected by Vladimir Putin’s “sheer callous incompetence” to spy for the UK.
Sir Richard Moore used a landmark speech to launch a recruitment campaign for defectors to “bring the bloodshed to an end” in Ukraine. He told them: “Our door is always open”, adding: “Come and talk to us.”
In a withering assault on Putin’s regime, the head of MI6 described his leadership as an “unstable autocracy” whose “inexorable decay” had been exposed by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny.
He said that in the past 18 months following the invasion of Ukraine, MI6 – officially the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) – had had some success already in reaching out to defectors. But following Prigozhin’s march on Moscow last month, which got to within 100 miles of the capital, Sir Richard said now was a pivotal moment.
In the speech in Prague – only his second in public since taking up the post in 2020 – Sir Richard said: “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.
“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.”
‘Join hands with us’
He drew on parallels of 55 years ago with the Prague Spring of 1968 when Russian tanks quelled the Czech uprising and which also prompted a flurry of spies recruited by British intelligence, appalled by “the moral travesty of what was being done here in Prague”.
Sir Richard, 60, said: “As they witness the venality, infighting and sheer callous incompetence of their leaders… many Russians are wrestling with the same dilemmas and the same tugs of conscience as their predecessors did in 1968.”
Sir Richard went on: “I invite them to do what others have already done this past 18 months and join hands with us. Our door is always open. We will handle their offers of help with the discretion and professionalism for which my service is famed.
“Their secrets will always be safe with us and together we will work to bring the bloodshed to an end.”
‘Putin cut deal to save his own skin’
In a question and answer session that followed his speech, Sir Richard said Putin was “under pressure” in the wake of the “ruinous war” and Prigozhin’s uprising that ended with a deal brokered by Belarusian dictator Oleg Lukashenko.
He said: “It is an extraordinary set of events… Prigozhin started off as a traitor by breakfast, pardoned by supper and a few days later was invited to tea.”
Asked if Putin was now “a cornered rat” who might be desperate enough to deploy nuclear weapons, Sir Richard said: “He really didn’t fight back against Prigozhin, he cut a deal to save his skin, using the good offices of the leader of Belarus.
“Even I can’t see inside Putin’s head, but ... the only people who have been talking about escalation and nuclear weapons are Putin and a handful of henchmen around him.
“That is irresponsible, it’s reckless and it is designed to try and weaken our resolve in supporting Ukraine and it will not work.”
He urged Putin to withdraw his soldiers from Ukraine. “No one wants to humiliate Putin, still less humiliate Russia, the great nation that he misrules. But the answer to these conundrums is very clear – to remove troops from Ukraine,” said Sir Richard.
China and Iran criticism
He also used the speech, given to an audience of journalists and intelligence and security experts at the British embassy in Prague, to warn China and Iran against their continuing support of the invasion.
“Iran’s decision to supply Russia with the suicide drones that mete out random destruction to Ukraine’s cities” was, he said, “unconscionable”. He also criticised China which he said had “leant very heavily in support” of the invasion despite Russia having “trampled” on international law.
Sir Richard also used the speech to warn of the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI) deployed in the wrong hands. “There’s absolutely no doubt that some of our adversaries will be prepared to develop AI in ways which are reckless and dangerous,” he said, “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.”
He said China “benefits from sheer scale” and had “added to its immense data-sets at home by hoovering up others abroad” giving it an “inherent advantage” as it developed AI.
But he stressed AI was proving a useful tool for MI6 and other intelligence agencies in the West in tackling the Russian invasion. “My teams are now using AI to augment – but not replace – their own judgment… They are combining their skills to identify and disrupt the flow of weapons to Russia for use against Ukraine,” he said.
Asked why he used “He/him” on his Twitter account and whether that was “woke”, Sir Richard replied: “MI6 doesn’t do culture wars but I do want us in my service to better represent the country it serves. That is a noble aim but also an intensely practical aim.”