Cargreen

PARIS: Russia is waging a reckless campaign of sabotage in Europe, Britain’s foreign intelligence chief warned on Friday (Nov 29), accusing President Vladimir Putin of showing a mixture of “ostentatiousness and aggression”.

In a rare public speech abroad, the head of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, also known as MI6), Richard Moore, said that even though Iran was struck by the humiliation of allied militias in the Middle East, its nuclear program “threatens us all”.

“We recently exposed a stunningly reckless campaign of Russian sabotage in Europe, even as Putin and his cronies resort to nuclear saber-rattling to sow fear about the consequences of aid to Ukraine and challenge Western resolve,” Moore said in a speech in Paris.

He did not reveal details about the nature of the sabotage, but said such “activity and rhetoric” was “dangerous and beyond irresponsible.”

Moore acknowledged the costs of Western support for Ukraine, which has run into trouble The large-scale invasion of Russia since February 2022.

But he warned that the “costs of not doing so would be infinitely higher.”

“If Putin succeeds in reducing Ukraine to a puppet state, he will not stop there,” Moore said.

“If Putin succeeds, China would weigh the implications, North Korea would be emboldened and Iran would become even more dangerous,” he said.

But Moore continued: “We have no doubt that our Ukrainian friends have the will to win.”

British and French intelligence services have been “crucial” in informing the decisions of their respective governments, “so they can successfully navigate Putin’s mix of bluster and aggression,” he said.

Moore said Russia counted on China’s supportIran and North Korea, whose military assistance to Moscow, according to the West, now extends to the deployment of troops.

“Putin is endangering Russia’s future by pumping vast sums of money into his military machine and wasting tens of thousands of lives – both Russian and now North Korean – in his catastrophic conflict,” Moore said.