{"id":222465,"date":"2025-06-28T22:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T22:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/222465\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T22:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T22:54:11","slug":"russia-accuses-uk-of-wild-neo-nazi-conspiracy-theory-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/222465\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia accuses UK of wild neo-Nazi conspiracy theory | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Russia has accused Britain and the West of being part of a wild, neo-Nazi conspiracy amid reports the grandfather of the new head of MI6 was a Nazi spy chief. Blaise Metreweli was announced as the new chief of the UK&#8217;s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) earlier this month. Her grandfather, Constantine Dobrowolski, reportedly defected from the Red Army to become <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/news\/uk\/2074036\/grandfather-new-head-mi6-was\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a Nazi informant<\/a> in the Chernihiv region of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/ukraine\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In a bizarre and outlandish claim, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday (June 28) that Ms Metreweli&#8217;s appointment to the post was evidence of a wider &#8220;trend&#8221; in the West. Russian state news agency <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/tass.com\/politics\/1982603\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TASS<\/a> quoted Ms Zakharova as saying: &#8220;Someone purposefully and consciously puts descendants of the Nazis in leadership positions in the countries of the collective West.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The diplomat baselessly claimed the &#8220;trend is obviously neo-Nazi&#8221; before listing other prominent politicians, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and UN General Assembly President Annalena Baerbok.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Merz&#8217;s father was a Wehrmacht veteran who spent four years in a prisoner of war camp in the Soviet Union. Ms Baerbock&#8217;s grandfather also served in the Wehrmacht. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/russia\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Russia<\/a> had tried and failed to discredit her candidacy for the UN role by pointing to her relative&#8217;s Nazi past.<\/p>\n<p>Zakharova&#8217;s bizarre conspiracy claims are the latest in a line of allegations made by Russian politicians, including former prime minister Dmitry Medvedev. They have been dismissed as disinformation meant to discredit the western democracies supporting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/ukraine\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Russian President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/vladimir-putin\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Vladimir Putin<\/a> has repeatedly made baseless claims that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/ukraine\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ukraine<\/a> is under a &#8220;neo-Nazi regime&#8221; to justify his illegal invasion of the country.<\/p>\n<p>A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said: &#8220;Blaise Metreweli neither knew nor met her paternal grandfather. Blaise&#8217;s ancestry is characterised by conflict and division and, as is the case for many with eastern European heritage, only partially understood.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is precisely this complex heritage which has contributed to her commitment to prevent conflict and protect the British public from modern threats from today&#8217;s hostile states, as the next chief of MI6.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ms Metreweli will take over as head of MI6 from Sir Richard Moore, a senior civil servant who will step down in the autumn after five years in the role.<\/p>\n<p>Commonly referred to as C, the chief has operational responsibility for MI6, and is the only publicly named member of the organisation.<\/p>\n<p>She first joined the service as a case officer in 1999 and has carried out operational roles in the Middle East and Europe.<\/p>\n<p>In her new post, she will be accountable to the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia has accused Britain and the West of being part of a wild, neo-Nazi conspiracy amid reports the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[76991,87787,58503,332,87786,333],"class_list":{"0":"post-222465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-blaise-metreweli","9":"tag-blaise-metreweli-nazi-grandfather","10":"tag-mi6","11":"tag-russia","12":"tag-russia-nazi-conspiracy-theory","13":"tag-vladimir-putin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}