The head of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) Blaise Metreweli has warned that the UK is now “between peace and war.”
The British spy chief has said that Vladimir Putin is “testing us in the grey zone” and these tactics are “just below the threshold of war.”
She said that Putin is attempting to “bully, fearmongering and manipulate” by the Kremlin exporting chaos as the Kremlin is “dragging out” peace talks in Ukraine.
She warned of the power of social media which is growing and some of the algorithms may “become powerful” such as “states” in a new information war.
The MI6 spy chief said, “Our world is more dangerous and contested now than for decades. Conflict is evolving and trust is eroding, just as new technologies spur both competition and dependence.
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“We are being contested from sea to space, from the battlefield to the boardroom, and even our brains as disinformation manipulates our understanding of each other and ourselves.
“We are now operating in a space between peace and war.”
She warned that Britain is facing the “menace of an aggressive, expansionist and revisionist Russia.”
The US President’s negotiating team want the Ukrainian President to cede territory to Putin and not join NATO, reduce their armed forces by half in return for peace guarantees.
Metreweli said, : “I find it harrowing that hundreds of thousands have died, with the toll mounting every day because of Putin’s historical distortions and his compromised desire for respect.
“He is dragging out negotiations and shifting the cost of war onto his own population. Russia is testing us in the grey zone with tactics that are just below the threshold of war. It’s important to understand their attempts to bully, fearmonger and manipulate, because it affects us all.
“I am talking about, cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, drones buzzing airports and bases, aggressive activity in our seas, above and below the waves, state-sponsored arson and sabotage, propaganda and influence operations that crack open and exploit fractures within societies.”
The spy chief warned, “The foundations of trust in our societies are eroding. Information, once a unifying force, is increasingly weaponised. Falsehood spreads faster than fact, dividing communities and distorting reality. We live in an age of hyper-connection yet profound isolation.
“The algorithms flatter our biases and fracture our public squares. And as trust collapses, so does our shared sense of truth – one of the greatest losses a society can suffer.”
She added, “In an age of uncertainty, one constant remains: the choices made by human beings still determine the shape of the world. Yes, technology can illuminate possibilities, but information requires judgement, complexity demands clarity and only people can decide which path to follow.
“AI-powered robots and drones are brilliant for scaled manufacturing but devastating on the battlefield.
“Discoveries that cure disease can also create new weapons. And as states race for tech supremacy, or as some algorithms become as powerful as states, those hyper-personalised tools could become a new vector for conflict and control.
“The defining challenge of the twenty-first 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. Our world is being remade. And for the first time, we are all at the heart of it.
“The response to the increasing risks we face won’t be delivered by the UK intelligence community alone. Wider society has a role to play. That includes work hat takes place in schools across the country so our children don’t get duped by information manipulation. Let’s all check sources, consider evidence and be alive to those algorithms that trigger intense reactions, like fear”.
