{"id":148297,"date":"2025-09-19T23:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T23:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/148297\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T23:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T23:20:09","slug":"outgoing-mi6-chief-says-putin-has-bitten-off-more-than-he-can-chew-in-ukraine-espionage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/148297\/","title":{"rendered":"Outgoing MI6 chief says Putin has \u2018bitten off more than he can chew\u2019 in Ukraine | Espionage"},"content":{"rendered":"

The outgoing head of MI6 has issued a damning indictment of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, saying that Vladimir Putin<\/a> has \u201cbitten off more than he can chew\u201d.<\/p>\n

Richard Moore, known within MI6 as C, used his farewell speech in Istanbul to say that while Russia<\/a> was unlikely to win on the battlefield, his agency was seeking to recruit spies inside Russia and worldwide in order to fight back.<\/p>\n

\u201cPutin has sought to convince the world that Russian victory is inevitable, but he lies. He lies to the world. He lies to his people. Perhaps he even lies to himself,\u201d said Moore. \u201cBut we should not believe him. Or credit him with strength he does not have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any Russian victories on the battlefield remained incremental, said Moore, and incurred massive costs as the president\u2019s army fell far short of its original aims to swiftly capture all of Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The rising costs now included more than a million casualties \u2013 a quarter of them \u201cpoorly trained troops from Russia\u2019s poorest regions\u201d that were \u201cfed into the meat grinder\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

A former ambassador to Ankara, Moore appeared to choose Istanbul as the place to launch a drive to recruit spies due to the large numbers of Russian visitors to Turkey<\/a> as well as its proximity to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan, has long sought to position his country \u2013 a Nato member and the host of slow peace talks that have come to little \u2013 as an important interlocutor with Moscow.<\/p>\n

The outgoing spy chief also cited other threats to British and global security, notably Iran<\/a>. Millions of Iranians visit neighbouring Turkey each year, and Moore pointedly added that MI6\u2019s recruitment offer via a new portal on the dark web was open to anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur door is always open,\u201d he said. Citing his entreaties to Russian citizens during a previous visit to Prague, he added: \u201cCome spy with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran, China and North Korea had all aided Putin\u2019s war in Ukraine, Moore said, allowing Putin to avoid possible internal collapse or an inevitable ceasefire deal.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn the end, if we hold our nerve, Putin will need to come to terms with the fact that he has a choice to risk an economic and political crisis that threatens his own rule, or make a sensible deal,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a choice he would have had to confront earlier, if not for the outside help he had been receiving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore used his speech to launch MI6\u2019s secure messaging platform, named Silent Courier, as a way for potential recruits to contact the organisation and offer their services. He presented this as a way to help Britain and its allies repel Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine and possibly accelerate the decline of Putin\u2019s rule.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot all Russians subscribe to Putinism,\u201d he said. \u201cSome keep their heads down and try to get on with their lives as best they can. Some, like Alexei Navalny<\/a>, resist openly and die for their beliefs, but others do so secretly \u2013 by working for MI6.\u201d<\/p>\n

Promising potential Russian recruits security and protection, Moore framed the offer as an opportunity to bring peace to Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo those men and women in Russia who have truths to share and the courage to share them, I invite you to contact MI6. You will be working to bring peace to our continent, to protect the long term interests and redeem the honour of your country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The outgoing head of MI6 has issued a damning indictment of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, saying that Vladimir…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-148297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}