Russia Behind ‘Staggeringly Reckless Campaign’ of Sabotage in Europe, Underestimates Strength of Democracies, Says British Spy Boss

A campaign of sabotage is being waged in Europe by the Russian Federation, the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency MI6 says in a speech in which he also telegraphed a positive message towards incoming U.S. President Donald Trump.

The world is at its most dangerous point in decades with threats like Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran, as well as persistent terrorism threats, the chief of the UK Secret Intelligence Service best known as MI6 said in Paris on Friday. Speaking as part of the 120th anniversary commemorations of the Entente Cordiale alliance between the United Kingdom and France enacted as a counterweight against the rising threat of a unified and industrialised Germany, Sir Richard Moore said winning the Ukraine war was of vital importance to the security of the “British, French, European, Transatlantic… the International order”.

He said: “In 37 years in the intelligence profession I have never seen the world in a more dangerous state, and the impact on Europe, our shared European home, could hardly be more serious.” Reflecting on the role of intelligence in 2024 the spy boss said it helped the West navigate “Putin’s mix of bluster and aggression” while saying intelligence agencies had revealed the extent of secret Russian efforts to destabilise the West.

Sir Richard remarked: “We have recently uncovered a staggeringly reckless campaign of Russian sabotage in Europe, even as Putin and his acolytes resort to nuclear sabre-rattling to sew fear about the consequences of aiding campaign and to challenge Western resolve in so doing. Such activity and rhetoric is dangerous and beyond irresponsible. But we have no doubt that our Ukrainian friends have the will to win.”

The spy chief’s remarks come after months of claims by Western intelligence agencies about Russian sabotage efforts against Europe both great and small. Perhaps most concerning as been an apparent campaign to insert incendiary parcels into international courier networks where they might explode while abroad cargo jets. Russia has been blamed, although not yet conclusively, for these attempts.

These burning letters were thrown back into the spotlight this week when a Boeing jet operating for courier DHL crashed in northern Europe in a gigantic ball of flame. The crash investigation is underway and could last months, but in the first hours after the disaster figures including Germany’s Foreign Minister questioned whether it was a simple accident or something more sinister.

Russian malfeasance or not, Sir Richard asserted Western democracies had a staying power Russia simply did not. He said: “Russia should avoid the classic error of the authoritarian state which confuses the splendidly irreverent clash and thunder of democracy with weakness and irresolution. Our democracy is our strength, continuously bestowing legitimacy on our leaders’ decisions… together as allies our collective strengths will outmatch and outlast Putin’s morally bankrupt axis of aggression”.

He also looked to several other countries, citing the threats posed by nations like China, North Korea, and Iran. On Beijing he said the West must “navigate the rise of an increasingly assertive China”, noting the power competes with the interests of Britain, France, and America and which have values that “often do not align with our own”.

Sir Richard also took time to telegraph that he is at ease with the forthcoming second Trump Presidency, indicating — counter to alarmist warnings by many — that he expected things to go smoothly. He said: “For decades the US-UK intelligence alliance has made our respective societies safer. I worked successfully with the first Trump administration to advance our shared security and I look forward to doing so again”.

It is widely understood that since Russia’s renewed invasion both sides of the conflict are locked in a secondary struggle to sabotage the support mechanisms of each other’s war machines. Ukraine is comparatively open about this, promoting instances where Kyiv-loyal operates manage to assassinate “traitors” or blow up supply lines. Equivalent targets for Russian saboteurs may be further afield as Ukraine’s supply lines stretch across Europe, and as claimed Russia has been on  a broader “hybrid” bid to destabilise Europe.

Russia has been claimed to be behind a series of acts of sabotage in recent years. In August, Russian intelligence was blamed for the alleged poisoning of water supplies at NATO bases in Germany. As previously reported in a summary of these claims:

There were several such incidents across the continent in April, including the arrest of a Polish national in his home country, accused of conducting hostile reconnaissance against the airport used by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when he flies abroad.

Because Ukraine is covered by a no-fly zone, when politicians enter and leave the country they travel first by VIP train across the Polish border and then to Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport, where flights can then take them worldwide. The Polish Prosecutor said of the allegations against the man: “The findings of the investigation show that the suspect’s tasks included collecting information that would be helpful in planning a possible assassination attempt on the life of the President of Ukraine by the Russian services… the detainee was charged with reporting readiness to act for foreign intelligence against the Republic of Poland… The act is punishable by up to 8 years in prison.”

In the same month two German-Russian dual citizens were arrested in Germany over alleged hostile reconnaissance of a U.S. Army base in Bavaria used to train Ukrainian soldiers. The pair were said to be planning to “commit explosives and arson attacks, especially on military infrastructure and industrial sites in Germany”. One of the suspects in the case, Dieter S., was accused of: “conspiring to cause an explosive explosion and arson, acting as an agent for sabotage purposes… membership in a foreign terrorist organization and preparing a serious act of violence that endangers the state.”

Again in April five people in the United Kingdom were facing charges over an arson attack that burnt out a Ukrainian-owned business in London. At least one of the group was charged with hostile activity intended to “assist a foreign intelligence service carrying out activities in the UK”. In February of this year Estonia arrested ten alleged saboteurs, who were accused of working to spread fear as part of a “hybrid operation”, the neologism now in currency for war by other means.

A remarkable case in December 2023 saw 14 ‘spies’, who among their number were Ukrainian refugees, sentenced by a court for a plot to gather information and launch a variety of actions and attacks. The court heard how the group were in communication with Russian intelligence and had been promised payments in cryptocurrency payments in return for their work.

The bounties on offer from Moscow were said to have included $5 for putting up a poster disseminating pro-Russian or anti-Ukrainian propaganda, or $400 for installing a wireless surveillance camera watching a port, airport, or railyard where military equipment transited from Europe to Ukraine. $10,000 in crypto was apparently offered in return for derailing a military train carrying equipment to Ukraine.

While derailing a train may seem fanciful, such tactics are already in widespread use in the Ukraine war itself and beyond, with pro-Kyiv saboteurs working overtime behind Russian lines to prevent ammunition and resupply trains reaching the front line, frequently blowing lines, burning equipment, and derailing trains. In some cases the Ukrainian partisans have gone further, planting car bombs on the personal vehicles of targets within Russia.