UK’s new spy chief warns the ‘front line is everywhere’ amid growing threat from Russia

By Caitlin Danaher, Nick Paton Walsh, CNN

(CNN) — The new head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service MI6 will warn the nation that the “front line is everywhere” in her first public speech on Monday, with the UK facing a growing threat from Russia.

Blaise Metreweli became the first female chief of the Secret Intelligence Service’s 116-year history when she took up her post this fall. Commonly referred to as “C,” the chief is the only publicly named member of the famously secretive organization.

In a speech at MI6 HQ in London, Metreweli is expected to highlight the increasingly complex landscape of threats facing the UK, including technological disruption, information manipulation and terrorism.

The chief will also address the acute threat posed by an “aggressive, expansionist, and revisionist” Russia, alongside other hostile actors.

“The export of chaos is a feature not a bug in the Russian approach to international engagement; and we should be ready for this to continue until (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is forced to change his calculus,” she is expected to say.

Security experts say Russia has been waging a hybrid war on Western allies of Ukraine, following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor. In the UK, Russian-backed operatives have set fire to Ukrainian-linked factories, police said.

Elsewhere in Europe, drones spotted near airports have halted flights, NATO airspace has been violated in Poland and Romania, and underwater cables have been disrupted in the Baltic Sea, sparking fears of sabotage. Russia has not claimed responsibility for any involvement in these incidents.

Metreweli is also set to emphasize the importance of mastering technology, whether that be in labs, in the field, or in MI6’s tradecraft. The chief previously led the service’s technology and innovation teams, a position made famous as “Q” in the James Bond movies.

“We must be as comfortable with lines of code as we are with human sources, as fluent in (computer programming language) Python as we are in multiple languages,” she is expected to say.

The spy chief will conclude her speech by underlining the power of human agency in tackling threats to UK security.

“The defining challenge of the 21st century is not simply who wields the most powerful technologies, but who guides them with the greatest wisdom. Our security, our prosperity and our humanity depend on it,” Metreweli will say.

In a more dangerous, tech-mediated world, the chief will call for the “rediscovery of our shared humanity,” to determine how the future unfolds.

“It is not what we can do that defines us, but what we choose to do. That choice – the exercise of human agency – has shaped our world before, and it will shape it again,” she is expected to say.

The MI6 chief’s address comes just a week after a speech by British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, in which she highlighted the threat of information warfare. The government had sanctioned numerous organizations and individuals responsible for “delivering Russia’s information warfare,” Cooper said, as well as two China-based companies for their “vast and indiscriminate cyber activities against the UK and its allies.”

Earlier this year, MI6 launched an online portal aimed at using the dark web to entice potential spies to send secrets, particularly targeting Russia.

The portal, called Silent Courier, allows anonymous access to a secure MI6 messaging platform where users can send information to UK intelligence services from anywhere in the world. The launch came after the former spy chief Richard Moore used a rare public speech in Prague in July 2023 to appeal to Russian citizens to spy for the UK.

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