Russia, Iran and China are behind a growing number of hostile operations on British territory, in which there is a real danger to human life, including attacks and kidnappings. This was reported by two senior British police officers, quoted by Reuters, specifying that in a number of cases criminals and sometimes even minors are used, BTA reports.
In recent years, British authorities have repeatedly expressed concern about the actions of these three countries, from traditional espionage to sabotage and political assassinations. Moscow, Beijing and Tehran have denied the allegations as politically motivated.
According to British police, there has been a fivefold increase in such hostile activity since the poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal with “Novichok“ in Salisbury in 2017.
Dominic Murphy, head of the Counter-Terrorism Command in London, said the scale, complexity and frequency of these operations were growing at a rate that neither they nor their international partners had anticipated.
“We are increasingly seeing operations that directly threaten the lives of people in the UK,“ Murphy stressed.
According to Vicky Evans, senior national counter-terrorism coordinator, intermediaries are often hired in most cases, often vulnerable people, including young people and marginalized citizens. They operate for small sums of money without fully understanding what they are getting into.
“We are concerned that minors can be misled online and encouraged to carry out actions they do not fully understand,” Evans said. She said they are rarely ideologically motivated.
Earlier this month, three men were convicted of setting fire to businesses linked to Ukraine in London, which police say were ordered by the Russian group Wagner. A leader of the group previously admitted to planning to kidnap a critic of President Putin.
Last year, the head of Britain’s MI5 counterintelligence agency said that since January 2022 alone, at least 20 Iranian plots to kidnap or assassinate people seen by Tehran as a threat had been thwarted.