Former British military intelligence chief warns: We are now at war

As recently as last year, he chided “prominent members of our own elite” for “doing our enemies’ work for them” because they “advocate for Huawei” and “refuse to publish serious scientific research that questions the Chinese narrative regarding the origin of Covid-19”. So he shouldn’t be expected to go easy on Germany following Russia intercepted an extraordinary recording of a secret conversation between the country’s top air force chief and three of his subordinates.

Indeed, the former military intelligence officer didn’t like it: “You know as well as I do that their security record is appalling. To be honest, it’s quite shocking,” R. Dearlove smiled while talking to Politico.

“Angela Merkel was notorious for acting like an ordinary citizen, leading Germany on a mobile phone. So you can be sure that the Russians listened to her – and probably still do. I think the problem with Germany is that the country is now a temperamental pacifist and has never taken security seriously,” he added.

However, Germany is not the only source of anxiety for the 79-year-old R.Dearlove. He also worries regarding the general state of unpreparedness and instability in the West.

As for Germany, you can’t say “there aren’t people who take it seriously, but they are a small minority,” Dearlove said. He then cited August Hanning, the former president of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency BND – and a personal friend – as one of those doing it. And A.Hanning himself warned that Russia’s wiretapping of a highly sensitive conference call is probably only the “tip of the iceberg”.

As head of MI6, Mr Dearlove was very careful regarding what he shared with the BND, fearing it would too easily leak to Russia. “There were certain very secret things that we would not have given them under any circumstances,” he said.

But given Germany’s role in Western support for Ukraine, the current head of MI6, Richard Moore, may find it more difficult to contain such intelligence. “The Germans will be very nervous and at a loss as to how to proceed and will be desperate for guidance,” Dearlove said.

“We are engaged in a gray war with Russia”

But for the retired intelligence chief, not only Germany is of particular concern, but also Great Britain.

As for the UK, Dearlove sees a gap between words and action, with warnings such as Defense Secretary Grant Shapps saying that Britain must decide “whether to give in to a sea of ​​trouble or do everything we can to prevent path to danger’ and taking real steps to be prepared.

“If you stopped anyone in the street here in the UK and asked them if they thought Britain was at war, they would look at you like you were crazy,” Dearlove said. “But we are at war – we are engaged in a gray war with Russia, and I try to remind people of that.”

Mr. Dearlove is angry with Britain’s defense spending and believes that it is simply not enough to counter the threats posed by Russia and China. In last week’s Spring Budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that there would be no immediate new funding for Britain’s armed forces, with fiscal pressures, the demands of the National Health Service and priority tax cuts set at 2%. expenditure on defense in the amount of national income.

But according to Malcolm Chalmers of the Royal Joint Services Institute, in reality this means a reduction and is likely to mean a reduction in capacity.

“Anything else that’s not part of the nuclear budget is going to come under a lot of pressure,” Chalmers said. “The government will have to make unpleasant short-term decisions regarding various conventional capabilities at a time when the war in Ukraine signals missed opportunities in which our armed forces clearly need to invest more,” he added.

R.Dearlove seconded M.Chalmers. “We have to make tough decisions, and I’m afraid we’re going to have tough decisions ahead of us.” We should spend at least 2.5 percent,” he said. “We urgently need to build more ships. We need a much larger fleet. And we need more troops on the ground, for God’s sake,” he muttered, noting that the war in Ukraine had shown the importance of combat power.

Baltic countries – consolation, Poland – praise

Still, the former MI6 chief takes some solace in what the Central European and Baltic countries are doing, and particularly praises Poland, which has achieved record high levels of defense spending in NATO. Currently, Poland spends almost 4% on defense. BVP, and President Andrzej Duda warned this week that “Russia’s imperialist ambitions and aggressive revisionism are pushing Moscow into direct confrontation with NATO, the West and ultimately the entire free world.”

As Russia transitions to a war economy and allocates almost 30 percent of their annual budget for armaments, it is time for all NATO members to allocate 3% to defense. of its GDP, said A. Duda.

R.Dearlove believes that such an increase in defense spending is also a necessary “protection once morest Donald Trump.” “If [buvęs JAV prezidentas Donaldas] By the time Trump takes office, most NATO members will either meet or exceed 2 percent. defense spending of its GDP,” he said. And this should help to cope with the fact that a long-time critic of NATO will serve another term in the White House.

“The situation is completely different from the first time. I agree with what D. Trump did during his first term, cursing NATO, especially the Germans. If the Germans really started spending seriously on armaments – which they should because of the size of their economy – that would be a game-changer,” he said.

However, R.Dearlove, who in 1999-2004 led MI6, has an ambiguous assessment of D. Trump, who complains that NATO members in Europe are not paying their price, and has even threatened to withdraw from the alliance. Dearlove recently told Britain’s Sky News that Trump’s re-election would be “problematic” because of his problems with NATO and that if the former US president took hasty action, it might do a lot of damage, including to Britain’s security.