Statements by UK counterintelligence chief MI -5 Ken McCallum for alleged acts of sabotage by the Russian Federation in Europe have no basis. This is stated in a message from the Russian Embassy in London, quoted by TASS.
"The Russian Embassy categorically rejects the baseless allegations made by MI5 Director Ken McCallum. By virtue of his profession, McCallum is aware that NATO countries, including the UK, use proxy and mercenary methods of warfare. as well as conducting hostile intelligence operations in the context of the Ukrainian crisis. The scare tactics he is trying to use are apparently aimed at maintaining waning public support for the regime in Kiev, which is rapidly depleting the UK's finances and arsenals," the Russian diplomatic mission in London said in a statement. her Telegram channel.
We recall that on Tuesday MI-5 warned of a Russian intelligence mission to create chaos in Europe.
Russian military intelligence seeks to cause "chaos" in the UK and Europe. This was stated by the head of internal intelligence of the United Kingdom.
Against this background, the growing threat from "Al Qaeda" and "Islamic State" is the biggest concern of the terrorism office.
McCallum accused Iran of being behind "plot after plot" on British soil.
He pointed out that investigations into state threats have increased by 48% in the past year as Russia and Iran have turned to criminals, drug traffickers and proxies to do their "dirty work".
"MI5 has an awful lot to do,", McCallum summed up.
Outlining the threats to Britain, he noted that since March 2017, MI5 and British police had foiled 43 plots at an advanced stage, some of which were in the final days of mass murder planning.
The terrorist trend that the intelligence chief admitted worries him the most is a growing threat from al-Qaeda, which is trying to profit from the conflict in the Middle East, and especially from the Islamic State, which resumed its efforts to export terrorism. As an example, he pointed to the attack on a concert hall in Moscow in March.
So far, however, the conflict in the Middle East has not yet escalated into military violence in our country, he noted.
Of the people investigated for involvement in terrorism, 13% were under the age of 18, a three-fold increase over the past three years.
Much of McCallum's speech was devoted to the state threats posed by Russia and Iran.
Despite the expulsion of more than 750 Russian diplomats from Europe after Russia invaded Ukraine, and the expulsion of the last Russian military intelligence officer from Britain earlier this year, McCallum said he was impressed by how Russian government officials approached proxies to do their job.
"The GRU in particular has been on a sustained mission to wreak havoc on British and European streets: we've seen arson, sabotage and more. "Dangerous acts carried out with increasing recklessness," he said, declining to elaborate.