Counterintelligence/ UK

Countering Russian intelligence in the UK

In Britain, senior policy makers view these initiatives as a policy change towards Russian intelligence operations here. The security service (MI5) has directed the counter-espionage branch to step up surveillance against Putin-backed agents on the streets of London. The UK security services have begun to recruit a new generation of Russian-speaking spies to help monitor Vladimir Putin's undercover agents as relations worsen between the two states. Moreover, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond also warned that the country's spy agencies were stepping up efforts to counter the FSB and GRU networks.