The former Mi6 head Alex Younger says that Great Britain has to prepare for the war while Putin threatens Europe
Great Britain It needs to re -study and build reserves through a form of national service to be defended Vladimir Putin’s hopes of Dominating Eastern Europe and undermining the West, the former head of Mi6 He warned.
Sir Alex Younger He said that people in the United Kingdom must realize that the threat of Russia – and its closeness to the United States – is real, adding: “Putin and Trump together I did their best to convince us that the rules have changed. “
Reflect if Great Britain has courage For a large -scale war, he said to the independent TV: “I worry: we disarmed militarily, evidently. We largely dismantled our military and industrial base, which is a big problem.
“For many years we have been completely free from any form of existential threat.
“We immediately immediately … launched … launched a series of wars of choice, which have unnecessarily imposed the sacrifice to young people and there is a great cynicism about this idea of collective effort to defend your country.
“I think we are more comfortable in thinking about the army as the English football team; they go and do their things over there and we watch it on television – and it can no longer happen.”
Look at the entire episode of The Conversation: by moving alliances with Sam Kiley, Alex Younger and Rachel Ellehuus Here.
Discussing what must be done to prepare, Sir Alex, known as “C” during his time as a spy garment, added: “You should ask a soldier the actual effectiveness of things like conscription. I have no idea … I know it only has to be a more integrated feature of everyday life.
“I think this will bring benefits. So I think this is probably more on a more creative and wider conception of what the reserves are.”
Sir Alex, a graduate in computer science and former officer in the Scottish guards, has given a distinctly response of the establishment to the question if, after having supported Putin in such a public way, Trump He could work for Russia, an accusation that was made against the President of the United States in the past, without any proof.
“I mean, who knows? Personally I don’t think it’s a Russian agent. I did everything to not find out because why should you want to know? So I don’t know.
“In a sense, this is not the point. The point is It agrees with Vladimir Putin. Agrees on the fact that large countries obtain further rights on small countries, in particular in their courtyard. “
There would never have been a time before when he is asked, in public, if the President of the United States could be conceivably a Russian agent that the former head of Mi6 He would have replied with a political shock.
Speaking in the first episode of The conversationA new series of discussions led by experts on independent TV, together with the United States defense The former Secretary’s envoy to NATO, dr. Rachel Ellehuus, Sir Alex said that Great Britain has fallen behind other European nations in its skills and will, to defend itself.
“It really depends on how close you are in Moscow. I think that in Finland it is well understood and there is a properly integrated resilient culture in which everyone is used to being part of their part. I think we go to Portugal on the other side that it is not true – and in a sense it is understandable.
“I think the United Kingdom is also quite in conflict. We have this surprising story, which makes people more ready to conceive Great Britain who plays a much more active role, but I think here too, there is a real concern to be asked to really do things.”
With this it means contributing with a large number of people to fight, but also to understand that a hybrid war with Russia – in which disinformation, computer attacks and economic pressure are already underway -.
Dr. Ellehuus, now general manager of Royal United Services InstituteThe main Think Tank security of Great Britain established the threat that European nations are urgently looking for to cope.
This threat intensified following sudden change in strategic ideology in Washington below Trump.
Since its inauguration, Trump has reported that Europe has to pay for its safety. He also said he no longer sees the NATO alliance that supported western security for 80 years, as useful.
He threatened to colonize both Canada and Greenland. He also supported most of Putin’s statements on at least one fifth Ukraine And he agreed that he could “not be a country”.
Dr. Ellehuus, an American, said that while the threat represented by the Kremlin had been persistent, it was the Dramatic change in Washington This was the largest strategic shock.
“The galvanizing moment for Europe? Yes. Take a look at the Trump-Putin relationship or the Trump/Maga-Putin relationship,” he said.
“President Putin is trying to redesign the map. Some of the changes that have been made at the end of the Cold War they left UkraineGeorgia and Moldova not part of the Soviet Union, but neither a part of NATO or the European Union, they left them in a sort of limbo.
“(IT) has created an opportunity for him of chips away at the margins of those countries and creating pockets of instability or insecurity that would prevent them from fully integrating into NATO or EU.
“I am saying that tomorrow will invade the Baltic states or Poland? They are not. But he AND Going to test the boundaries of what we call article 5, which is the commitment that an attack on a NATO ally is an attack on all of them.
“It is already pushing the boundaries of this through activities below the threshold that are not conventional attacks.”
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, based in Washington, a 300 % increase in unconventional attacks on Europe by Russia has occurred last year, 2023-2024.
“About 27 % of the attacks were against the transport objectives (such as trains, vehicles and airplanes), another 27 % were against government objectives (such as military bases and officials), 21 % were against critical infrastructures (such as the cents of defense (like the hundred defense (like the defense defense) (like the defense cents (such as defense defense) (like the hundred defense (like the defense of defense) Defense defense) (like the hundred defense (like defense defense) (like the cents
Sir Alex said that Trump, Putin and the XI Jinping of China seem to sculpt the world in spheres of influence that set aside the notions of national sovereignty in places like Europe.
In addition, the long -standing question is now undermined by the United States. Both in terms of military doctrine, as shown by article 5 of NATO, and in the five -eyed intelligence sharing system between the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The trust between the United States and its allies under Trump was tense when Sir Alex was responsible for Mi6, after Trump paid the secret intelligence of a conspiracy of the Isis bomb in Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister.
It was also seriously damaged by the recent scandal of the signal messaging group.
The casino flowed from the decision of the President of the United States to put inexperienced leaders in the best intelligence works, Sir Alex suggested.
“Whatever you think, it has a cost only in terms of basic understanding of the environment in which we all operate and the existing threats.
“At first glance, using a phone, an iPhone or whatever it is, to plan an attack that you don’t want your enemy to know, it’s not reasonable.”
The use of personal cell phones for top secret communications was unforgivable, said dr. Ellehuus.
These communications were generally held on a safe video connection because they involved not only the staff of us (or the United Kingdom), but but intelligence agents that could be at risk on the ground.
Whatever the strains and new risks, which the Trump administration has now led to western intelligence agencies, Sir Alex said that the CIA officers “died in a moat” to protect their human sources.
“It’s a very unusual moment. But everything I’m saying when it comes to defense Of the integrity of our skills like five (eyes), there will be a very strong machine, very strong in operation to maintain integrity, even if I cannot diminish the idea that it is more at risk than it was. “
