Everything the chief of MI6 told us about Russia, China and AI today
On the 55th anniversary of the Prague Spring, the head of Britain’s secret intelligence service sat down with POLITICO’s Anne McElvoy — a journalist with deep experience reporting from behind the Iron Curtain — to talk about Russia, Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, China and AI in spycraft.
In the rare exclusive interview, Richard Moore issued a thinly-veiled recruitment call to Russians who’ve become disillusioned with their leadership while assessing that President Vladimir Putin was “under pressure” internally after a mutiny by mercenaries exposed his weakness.
“Join hands with us — our door is always open,” Moore — known as “C” inside the agency — said in a speech at a POLITICO event hosted by the British embassy in Prague.
The MI6 chief, who rose to lead the agency in 2020 after a career in diplomacy, repeatedly referred to Prague’s history as a center of resistance against Russian dominance as a parallel to current times. While the city’s students led an uprising against Soviet occupiers that was brutally repressed by Russian tanks, the Czech Republic — long known as a playground for spies — is now a member of NATO and the EU, as well as a robust supporter of Ukraine.
“When we were thinking about me coming here, it seemed a very good place to speak about Ukraine in particular. The parallels are so strong, aren’t they?” he said. “This is the last European country to see Russian tanks rolling across its border and that is where Ukraine finds itself.”
Moore offered an upbeat assessment of the battlefield situation in Ukraine, noting that Kyiv’s forces had taken back more ground in the past month than the Russians had done in a year. And he issued a warning to African leaders who are relying on Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner PMC mercenary army, to keep them in power.
“If Russian mercenaries can betray Putin, who else might they betray?” he said in the speech, the only public one he plans to give this year.
Moore’s remarks come as MI6 is increasing its public outreach efforts. Founded under another name before World War I, MI6 — Britain’s equivalent to the U.S.’s CIA, whereas MI5 is more like the FBI — operated for many years completely out of public view. The British government only officially acknowledged its existence in 1994.
During those years in the shadows, a rich lore developed around the spy agency and its cadre of secret agents — thanks in large part to authors such as Graham Greene and John Le Carré, and the iconic James Bond 007 character invented by Ian Fleming.
MI6 has modernized its image and now operates out of a gleaming headquarters on the banks of the Thames in London. But Moore said he embraces the mythology surrounding his office — including by writing in green ink, in keeping with a century-old tradition.
Between comments about the global spy game, Moore flashed his playful cufflinks — which were in the shape of Marmite jars and bore the words “love” and “hate” on either wrist. Ever the diplomat, Moore explained to the international audience that Marmite was a condiment made from yeast extract that has a “very strong taste” and is either adored or detested, even in Britain. Take that, James Bond!
Here are seven takeaways from Moore’s POLITICO interview in Prague.
1. Ukraine’s ‘hard grind’
With Russia’s invasion almost 18 months old, Kyiv’s Western allies are paying close attention to the progress of a counteroffensive that started earlier this summer. Ukrainian commanders have underscored challenges on the battlefield, as deeply-entrenched Russian troops have strewn the front with many thousands of mines that are slowing Ukraine’s advance.
Kyiv’s progress, which is taking place without strong air support, has led to criticism that Ukraine is advancing too slowly. But Moore struck a positive note.
“Well it’s a hard grind and, you know, Ukrainian officials and military don’t shy away from that. And the Russians have had a chance to put in defense[s] which are very tough to overcome,” he said.
“But I do return to the point that Ukrainian commanders in rather stark contrast to their Russian counterparts want to preserve the lives of their troops and therefore move with due caution. They have still recovered more territory in a month than the Russians managed to achieve in a year.”
2. Don’t ‘humiliate’ Putin
Since the start of the war, some Western leaders — most notably French President Emmanuel Macron — have voiced concern about the risk of “humiliating” Putin. Moore seemed to agree, saying the West’s aim was not to embarrass Russia or Putin himself.
“No one wants to humiliate Putin, still less does anyone want to humiliate the great nation of Russia,” he said. “But the route for them is very clear: Pull all your troops out.”
He added: “Most conflicts end in some kind of negotiation. It is for Ukraine to define the terms of peace, not us. Our job is to try and put them in the strongest possible position to negotiate from, from a position of strength, and that’s what we’re intent on doing.”
3. Russian leader ‘under pressure’
Nearly 1.5 years into Russia’s re-invasion of Ukraine and a month after Prigozhin’s aborted mutiny, Moore said it was impossible to determine what was going through Putin’s mind. But he did offer a severe assessment of his position inside the Russian power structure.
“He is clearly under pressure. You don’t have a group of mercenaries advance up the motorway toward Rostov and get to within 125 kilometers of Moscow unless you have not quite predicted that was going to happen,” he said.
“I think he probably feels under some pressure. Prigozhin was his creature, utterly created by Putin, and yet he turned on him,” Moore added. “He really didn’t fight back against Prigozhin. He cut a deal to save his skin using the good offices of the leader of Belarus.”
4. Calling all Russian defectors
Moore issued an open invitation to Russians who feel disillusioned by their leader and the bloodshed in Ukraine, urging them to get in touch with British security services.
“I invite them to do what others have already done in the past 18 months and join hands with us,” he said in his prepared remarks. During his interview, he added: “The truth is that people continue to come to us, Anne, and of course in doing so they take risk. But we look after the people who come and work with us, and of course, our successes are never known.”
5. China’s ‘huge’ capabilities
Despite the intense focus on Russia, the spy chief underscored that Britain’s chief concern on the world stage today is China, which he described as unavoidable.
“We now devote more resources to China than any other mission.” This reflects “China’s importance in the world” and the “crucial need” to understand the capabilities of the Chinese government, he said.
On China’s intelligence operations in the West, Moore said: “Like everything else with China you have to look at its scale.” China’s capabilities are “huge and they deploy overseas in large numbers,” he added.
6. Spying in the age of AI
With the rise of artificial intelligence, some critics have argued that AI will make human agents irrelevant. Moore pushed back strongly against that point, arguing that human intelligence remained crucial to do what “machines cannot do,” while underscoring that MI6 was “experimenting like mad” with AI.
“If AI is taken in a direction which is beyond international coordination and developed for evil intent, that is highly dangerous. As we can tell already with the possibilities of generative AI, this will have to be handled with real care,” he said.
7. Turmoil in Iran over drones
Moore dropped a tantalizing clue about discord inside Iran’s secretive regime. While Iran has been a key supporter of Putin’s invasion, providing drones that have terrorized Ukrainian troops and cities, the MI6 boss said that the provision of drones was prompting arguments among Iran’s leaders.
“Iran’s decision to supply Russia with the suicide drones that mete out random destruction to Ukraine’s cities has provoked internal quarrels at the highest level of the regime in Tehran,” he said in prepared remarks. “Iran has chosen presumably to earn cash as well as probably to receive some military know-how in return for their support for the Russians.”
Source: POLITICO Europe
