MI5 chief calls expulsion of 400 Russian spies from Europe a ‘significant blow’ to Moscow

Ken McCallum, the MI5 chief, who is responsible for Britain's domestic security and counter intelligence, has said that Russia's spy network in Europe has suffered a tremendous setback since the Ukraine war. He made the statement during his annual speech which lays out all the threats to the UK's security. According to a report from CNN news, as many as 600 officials have been expelled from Europe. 

Ken McCallum stated that as per MI5's assessment, 400 of these 600 were Russian spies. He added that the UK has rejected 100 diplomatic visa applications, which has undermined Russia's capability to carry out covert action in the UK. He pointed out that the UK has also removed 23 Russian spies who were posing as diplomats. “We’ve continued to work intensively to make the UK the hardest possible operating environment for Russian covert action. In the UK’s case, since our removal for 23 Russian spies posing as diplomats, we have refused on national security grounds over 100 diplomatic visa applications … The serious point is that the UK must be ready for Russian aggression for years to come," the MI5 chief said. 

Russian intelligence has been dealt a blow, says MI5 chief

McCallum said that these expulsions have dented a significant blow to Russian intelligence. He added that a significant percentage of "trained, experienced Russian intelligence talent" has been rendered useless, as a result of these expulsions. The UK and Russia have a long history of sending spies to each other's nations. The main goal of these spies is to recruit people from the target nation and use them as a source of important information. Although spies operate in target nations under various different roles, the most common one is working as a diplomat as that gives them access to people in target nations that some other role might not. 

The MI5 chief also spoke about the threat China poses to the UK. He said that the level of threat China poses to the UK is of a different level, compared to the immediate threat that China poses. British PM Rishi Sunak called China a "systematic challenge" to UK's economic security, interests and values, during the sidelines of the G20 summit.