British and Western intelligence services warn hostile states could provoke chaos in Europe

According to Ken McCallum, the director of MI5, the British counterintelligence services, Russia is planning to cause chaos throughout Europe.

On October 9, this official, quoted by the French 'L'Express'publication, explicitly accused Moscow of wanting to sow "chaos" in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe through its military intelligence agency, the GRU.

Ken McCallum also added that in 2023, the number of investigations related to acts committed by hostile foreign powers or private intelligence agencies has increased by 48% compared to the previous year.

"We are now facing state-backed plots to commit assassinations or acts of sabotage against the backdrop of war on European soil," added the head of MI5 in a speech at the Counter-Terrorism Operations Centre.

This viewpoint is shared by Richard Moore, his counterpart at the foreign intelligence service MI6, and the CIA director, William Burns, who co-signed an unprecedented op-ed published in the Financial Times and covered by the BBC.

These two senior officials have warned against the "reckless sabotage campaign" carried out by Russia in Europe and called for unity between their two countries in the face of this imminent peril.

Their cooperation also aims to combat "the cynical use of new technologies to spread lies and disinformation that seek to divide us," they specified.

Germany agrees with its allies. In a recent hearing at the Bundestag, the German parliament, its three intelligence services reported a "significant increase in acts of espionage and sabotage" against the country's military, as the French newspaper Le Figaro reported.

"Russian espionage and sabotage are increasing in Germany, both
quantitatively and qualitatively," clarified the head of Internal Intelligence, Thomas Haldenwang.

Photo: Elena Mozhvilo / Unsplash

The head of the espionage and counter-espionage services (BND),
Bruno Kahl, has spoken of an upcoming "escalation in terms of hybrid and secret actions" perpetrated by Russia on German soil.

Meanwhile, Ken McCallum has also implicated Iran, whose "plots" carried out on British soil have increased "at a pace and scope unprecedented" since 2022.

Relations between Western countries and Tehran are tenser than ever, in a context of military escalation in the Middle East which carries a considerable risk of importing the conflict into Europe.

Ken McCallum has expressly declared himself "very aware of the risk
that events in the Middle East might directly trigger a terrorist action in the United Kingdom".

Long considered to be waning, the Islamist terrorist groups Al-Qaeda and ISIS have once again been placed at the top of the list of threats to national and European security by British intelligence services.

Furthermore, far-right groups represent another significant threat. "Right-wing terrorism, in particular, strongly targets the youth with propaganda that shows a nuanced understanding of internet culture," warned McCallum.

Photo: Joshua Sortino / Unsplash

This leads to the last disturbing fact highlighted by the Briton: the high proportion of minors among those targeted by an MI5 investigation due to their involvement in terrorism in the United Kingdom. This figure amounts to 13% and has tripled in just three years.

Photo: Chris Yang / Unsplash

For William Burns and Richard Moore, "the international world order (...) is now threatened, more than it has ever been since the end of the Cold War." Will democracies manage to rise to the challenge collectively?

Photo: Christian Lue / Unsplash