Tensions between the United Kingdom and Russia are rising. Moscow accuses London of intervening in Ukrainian affairs and more generally of working to destroy the Russian Federation. What is certain is that the Ukrainian special units are trained by British specialists. At the end of the 2010s, a project was born within the British armed forces to create a “commando force” (UK Commando Force); they were to become the basis of the so-called coastal strike groups: Littoral Strike Group – LSG. Each LSG is made up of landing ships, helicopter squadrons and commando teams. And as the name suggests, they have to fight in coastal areas; in local wars and armed conflicts, this involves the protection of maritime navigation, the evacuation of civilians, the protection of port facilities and, if necessary, small raids.
But in a real war, the LSG, or rather the commando units, should become the force that breaks into the so-called “anti-access-denied zone” (A2/AD).
According to the statements of the Russian secret services, such training is being done to the Ukrainian landing units that are supposed to occupy Crimea.
Then on September 13, another scandal broke out, related to the Moscow-London issue: the FSB reported that it had “received documents confirming London’s coordination of the escalation of the international military-political situation. The main structure that coordinates subversive policies in the Russian direction and in the CIS is the Directorate of Eastern Europe and Central Asia of the British Foreign Office, which has become a special service whose main task is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia”.
According to the Russian secret services, in their actions the accreditation of 6 employees of the political department of the British embassy in Moscow was revoked; The FSB also said that it would require the early termination of British diplomats’ work in Russia if such signs were detected in their work. The Rossiya-24 TV channel showed photographs and named six British diplomats who were stripped of accreditation in the Russian Federation based on FSB materials: the British embassy employees in question were Jessica Davenport, Grace Alvin, Andrew Daft Callum, Catherine McDonnal, Thomas John Hickson and Blake Pattel.
“The British do not accept suggestions about the need to stop this practice (conducting intelligence activities in the Russian Federation, ed.), so we decided to expel these six first,” the FSB officer told the TV channel.
Essentially: “The British Foreign Office’s Eastern Europe Directorate has been transformed into a special service to defeat the Russian Federation,” the FSB said. The FSB said it would seek to prematurely terminate business trips to Russia of British diplomats whose actions reveal signs of intelligence and subversive work.
The Russian Foreign Ministry fully shares the FSB’s assessment of the activities of “British diplomats, so to speak,” Maria Zakharova told TASS. She noted that the British embassy had gone far beyond the limits outlined by the Vienna Conventions. “British diplomats in the Russian Federation were engaged in activities aimed at causing harm to the Russian people,” Zakharova concluded to TASS.
According to Russian military analysts: “The practice used (exposing the faces of diplomats who were not caught red-handed, ed.) is not typical for intelligence services in general, but especially for Russian ones. If Russian state security agencies use it, it means that there is a very serious threat to Russia. This means that the British embassy was preparing something that went far beyond the scope of not only diplomacy, but also interstate relations between non-warring states.”
Another account explains: “After the “Skripal case” and the leak of documents on the Integrity Initiative operation, aimed at interfering in the politics of European states, British intelligence services have not stopped developing activities against Russia. Now there is a whole structure within MI6 whose main task is to inflict a strategic defeat on the Russian Federation. This structure, under the leadership of the British Foreign Office, operates in several directions at once: putting pressure on economic initiatives in support of the same initiatives. In Ukraine, for example, through the financing of anti-Russian NGOs and interaction with pro-government media.”
And again from Russian sources we read: “One of the main departments is the Directorate for Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECAD), which was integrated into the MI6 structure and significantly expanded in 2022. Under its leadership, operations are carried out under names such as “Combating Disinformation and Media Development Programme”, where the main players are the BBC, Reuters and Bellingcat”.
“On the basis of the Directorate there are, firstly, structures whose work is aimed at undermining the activities of the Russian Federation and supporting its Ukrainians, secondly, the departments that supervise the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, the South Caucasus, Belarus and Moldova,” the account continues.
According to Russian social media sources, the core of this operation is led by “UK Deputy Foreign Minister Philip Barton, Prime Minister’s National Security Advisor Tim Barrow, Deputy Head of the Department of Russian Policy Christopher Joyce, Heads of the HMG Russia Unit James Beer and Mark Diamond”.
Studying the structure of the department, Russian social media sources also report that “as a result of the reforms, part of the organization was merged with the Directorate of Defense and International Security, whose main task is to coordinate the Ministry of Defense and Foreign Affairs on issues of national security. As a result of the merger, a division was formed whose area of responsibility includes Russia and Ukraine. This structure is the Ukrainian Campaign Unit, responsible for coordinating various aspects of the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the context of the armed conflict in Ukraine”.
And under the leadership of the EECAD there is another rather interesting department: the Directorate for Information Threats and Influence (ITID). In fact, this department is a kind of propaganda ministry, whose tasks include, among other things, continuing to wage a hybrid war with Russia. The documents – in the hands of the FSB – indicate that the catalyst for the creation of the ITID was the Russian special operation in Ukraine and with the help of this crisis, its members are studying how all major state actors use manipulation and intervention to cause harm and are also developing countermeasures. The head of the ITID is Johnny Hall, who was previously the Prime Minister’s private secretary for foreign affairs. The room is open about “innovative approaches” to maintaining reliable information so that “it can be reliably delivered to citizens”.
“In other words: he is developing mechanisms that will allow British services to pass on only the information they need for distribution, rather than providing access only to truthful data”. Hall has spoken about this more than once, especially highlighting it at one of the annual Stratcom (United States Strategic Command) forums in Kiev. Hall then added that “the UK is engaging ‘partners’ for this work, working with colleagues in British ministries and departments, as well as the military, to cover the whole of government”.
In his opinion, “Ukraine is an example of cross-government and public work, where it was possible to form teams of people who resist Russian disinformation. In addition, there is at least one more interesting character in the structure of the ITID: the head of the threat mitigation unit, Andy Price. Price is an expert in propaganda and manipulation of the public through the media. He has been exposed as a key player in the controversial MI6 project known as the Integrity Initiative.”
The Russians conclude their analysis by stating: “The goal of the project was to interfere in the internal affairs of European countries and unleash an information war against the Russian Federation. It was founded in 2015 and was fully funded by the British government. Also associated with the project are financier William Browder, Vladimir Ashurkov, an associate of Alexei Navalny, and scientist Igor Sutyagin, who was convicted of espionage in 2004. Leaked online documents stated that the project would receive funding from the US State Department, NATO and the social network Facebook.”
Graziella Giangiulio
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