Dr Fiona Hill said in June that the UK had got it wrong about Moscow’s tactics as far back as 2005, and admitted that due to slip-ups, the UK might already be warring with Russia
The former chief of British intelligence has admitted that the UK could already be at war with Russia. She added that Britain had got Russian tactics all wrong for the past twenty years.
Russia is continuing its set of incursions on NATO territory, following an escalation of tensions between Moscow and the West. The latest incident came over the weekend when Denmark admitted its airports and military bases had been intercepted by suspected Russian drones.
The UK has already been dragged into the conflict, after a standoff between the Royal Navy and Russian warships passing through the English Channel in recent weeks. However, defence advisor Dr Fiona Hill has revealed the frosty relationship with Russia could have been a sign of war for years.
Sky News reported that back in June, Dr Fiona Hill had said that as a result of the various poisonings and assassinations of Vladimir Putin ‘s opponents that had taken place on British soil, it was safe to say that Russia was “at war with us”. Now, following the latest spate of Russian aggression, Baroness Manningham-Buller admitted that Dr Hill’s comments could be right.
Speaking on the House of Lords’ official podcast, former MI5 chief Baroness Manningham-Buller explained: “Dr Hill probably knows more about Putin than anybody else. Since the invasion of Ukraine, and the various things I read that the Russians have been doing here, sabotage, intelligence collection, attacking people, and so on… Fiona Hill may be right in saying we’re already at war with Russia.”
However, while she admitted that Dr Hill could be right, she insisted the war is not being fought in a traditional sense. “It’s a different sort of war, but the hostility, the cyber attacks, the physical attacks, intelligence work, is extensive.”
Having worked as the Director-General of MI5 from 2002 to 2007, Baroness Manningham-Buller recounted the time she met Vladimir Putin at a G8 summit in Scotland back in 2005. She admitted that at the time, there was hope that Russia would turn its back on its imperial history and start a new chapter away from the Soviet Union.
“I met him when he came back to London,” she recalled. But actually, we were wrong in that, because Russia is extremely hostile to the West, and we’ve seen it in all sorts of ways.”
She pointed to the poisoning of high-profile former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko back in 2006, after he was given tea laced with radioactive polonium-210. The spy had fled from his native Russia and had settled in the UK, being given British nationality.
Other incidents would later become well-known across the world, including the infamous Salisbury poisonings back in 2018. There, former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, were also poisoned using Novichok, a nerve agent developed in Russia.
Britain, under the leadership of then-Prime Minister Theresa May, went on to accuse Russia of committing attempted murder for their part in the incident. Russian diplomats would later be expelled from the UK, all while Russia strongly denied any involvement.
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