READ MORE:<\/strong> Russia and Ukraine trade attacks as U.S. and European officials prepare to resume peace talks<\/a><\/p>\nSpeaking inside the spy chief\u2019s wood-paneled dining room overlooking the River Thames, she said rapidly evolving technology is rewriting the rules of conflict, while hybrid threats from states and extremist groups mean \u201cthe front line is everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
The speech made a brief reference to China\u2019s \u201cimplications for national security,\u201d but Metreweli focused on the threat from an \u201caggressive, expansionist and revisionist Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia is testing us in the gray zone with tactics that are just below the threshold of war,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Warning comes amid Ukraine peace talks<\/p>\n
The warning came amid a flurry of diplomatic meetings aimed at ending the almost four-year war sparked by Russia\u2019s invasion of its neighbor.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Berlin Monday to meet U.S. envoys, and will meet later with the leaders of Germany, France and Britain. Kyiv\u2019s allies are trying to bolster support for Ukraine amid Washington\u2019s pressure to swiftly accept a U.S.-brokered peace deal.<\/p>\n
The MI6 chief, known as C, is the only employee of the secretive agency whose name is made public. In a speech that, unusually, touched on her personal backstory, Metreweli said that coming \u201cfrom a family shaped by devastating conflict, I grew up with a deep sense of gratitude for the U.K.\u2019s precious democracy and freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Metreweli\u2019s appointment was announced in June, media reported that her grandfather, Constantine Dobrowolski, had been a Nazi spy in Ukraine during World War II.<\/p>\n
MI6 said Metreweli never met her grandfather.<\/p>\n
Spies must master technology<\/p>\n
Metreweli, who has almost three decades of clandestine service and a background in anthropology, psychology and AI, was previously the MI6 director of technology and innovation \u2014 the real-world equivalent of the fictional Bond gadget-master Q.<\/p>\n
She said technological savvy and human intelligence are both key to combating \u201can interlocking web\u201d of security threats, and MI6 officers \u201cmust be as comfortable with lines of code as we are with human sources, as fluent in Python as we are in multiple languages.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur world is more dangerous and contested now than it has been for decades,\u201d she said, adding that \u201cwe are being contested from sea to space, from the battlefield to the boardroom \u2014 and even our brains, as disinformation manipulates our understanding of each other and ourselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe foundations of trust in our societies are eroding. Information, once a unifying force, is increasingly weaponized,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
In a warning to Britain\u2019s adversaries, she said MI6 will \u201csharpen our edge\u201d and \u201ctake calculated risks.\u201d She said the agency should tap into \u201cour historical, SOE instincts,\u201d referring to the clandestine Special Operations Executive that sent agents on daring sabotage missions in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will never stoop to the tactics of our opponents. But we must seek to outplay them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A series of security warnings<\/p>\n
The speech is the latest in a series of warnings by Western defense and security authorities about the growing hybrid threat from states such as Russia, Iran and to an extent China, whose use of cyber tools, espionage and influence operations they say threatens global stability.<\/p>\n
Last week, the U.K. imposed sanctions on several Russian media outlets for alleged information warfare and two Chinese tech firms for \u201cvast and indiscriminate cyberactivities.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a separate speech, the head of the British military, Air Chief Marshal Richard Knighton, said that Putin\u2019s aim is \u201cto challenge, limit, divide and ultimately destroy NATO.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knighton said at the Royal United Services Institute think tank that the war in Ukraine shows that Putin \u201cthreatens the whole of NATO, including the U.K.\u201d He argued that Britain needs both a stronger military and more resilient infrastructure to meet the evolving threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur objective must be to avoid war, but the price of maintaining peace is rising,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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