Britain’s MI6 intelligence chief has called on Russians enraged by the invasion of Ukraine to “unite” with the UK to help end the bloodshed, a call sure to infuriate the Kremlin.
“I invite them to do what others have done for the past 18 months and join us. Our door is always open… Their secrets will be safe with us and together we will end the bloodshed,” Richard Moore told Politico. Wednesday, at the British Embassy in Prague.
Washington made a similar call two months ago, when the CIA released a video urging the Russians to call.
“Contact us. Maybe people around you don’t want to hear the truth,” the agency said in the video.
Spyware carries great risks. Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously warned Russians against espionage, a crime punishable by 20 years in prison.
Speaking to Politico to an audience at the embassy, he also said that British spies were using artificial intelligence (AI) to curtail Russian arms supplies during its war with Ukraine.
Moore, who has previously warned the West not to lag behind rivals in the race for AI, said his staff are “combining their skills with AI and big data to identify and disrupt the flow of arms to Russia.”
with our allies, [we intend] Win the race to master the ethical and safe use of AI.
He warned that there was “absolutely no doubt” that the enemies would attempt to develop AI in reckless and dangerous ways, and that his agency was responsible for dealing with it.
“It will be an important part of our role going forward, to try to… find, detect and then disrupt people who want to develop AI in dangerous directions.”
In his second speech since becoming head of the Secret Intelligence Service in 2020, Moore said the Ukrainian counteroffensive was proving “difficult”, but he was optimistic that Russia was unlikely to regain momentum in Ukraine.
Moore said the Putin administration was wracked by “corruption, infighting and ruthless incompetence” and that the Russian leader was “clearly under pressure”.
He added that the Wagner Group’s rebellion “exposed the inexorable collapse of Putin’s unstable authoritarianism”.
