What does the UK’s top spy really think about Russia? On Monday, Britain got a rare and very clear answer.
In her first public speech since taking charge of MI6, Blaise Metreweli didn’t mince words.
Warning that Russia remains an “aggressive, expansionist and revisionist” force on the world stage.
Having taken over in October, Metreweli made history as the first woman to lead the 116-year-old intelligence service — a role better known simply as “C”.
Her message to the Kremlin was blunt. President Vladimir Putin, she said, should have “no doubt” that Britain’s backing of Ukraine is not fading anytime soon.
“The pressure we apply on Ukraine’s behalf will be sustained,” she said.
Espionage Enters Cyber Age
She added that Moscow’s habit of spreading instability abroad is no accident.The export of chaos is a feature, not a bug.”
The warning comes as Europe scrambles for a ceasefire path, with Germany hosting fresh US-Ukraine talks and a high-stakes summit in Berlin.
But Metreweli wasn’t only looking east. She stressed that modern espionage now depends as much on code as contacts.
MI6 officers, she argued, must be “as fluent in Python as we are in multiple languages”.
In an age of cyber threats and disinformation, the takeaway was simple: the battlefield has changed — and so must the spies.
