Former MI5 director general Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller has warned that Britain may already be engaged in a form of war with Russia, pointing to cyberattacks, espionage and covert operations on UK soil.
Speaking on the Lord Speaker’s Corner podcast, Manningham-Buller said she agreed with the assessment of Fiona Hill, a former adviser to U.S. president Donald Trump, who has argued that Britain is effectively at war with Moscow.
«Fiona Hill may be right in saying we’re already at war with Russia,» Manningham-Buller said. «It’s a different sort of war, but the hostility, the cyberattacks, the physical attacks, intelligence work is extensive.»
The former security chief, who led MI5 from 2002 to 2007, said Russian President Vladimir Putin has pursued a policy of «sustained hostility» towards the West since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. She cited sabotage operations, intelligence gathering, and targeted attacks in Britain as evidence of the Kremlin’s aggression.
Manningham-Buller also reflected on earlier Western hopes that Russia could integrate with democratic institutions. She said she met Putin in London during the 2005 G8 summit, when leaders still considered Moscow a potential partner.
«We were wrong because Russia is extremely hostile to the West,» she said. «I didn’t anticipate that within a year he’d be ordering the murder on London streets of Alexander Litvinenko.»
Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence officer, was fatally poisoned with radioactive polonium in London in 2006. A UK public inquiry later concluded he had been killed by Russian agents, «probably approved» by Putin himself.
Manningham-Buller’s warning comes as the UK continues to bolster its cyber defences and intelligence cooperation with allies, amid growing fears of Russian interference and sabotage in Europe.
Kursiv Uzbekistan also reports that Moldova’s pro-European ruling party secured a commanding victory over its Russia-leaning opponent in a parliamentary election seen as pivotal for the country’s future, Reuters reports.
