Putin's shadow war with the West has started in earnest

Shortly before Christmas, the new chief of MI6, Blaise Metreweli, made her first public speech since taking charge.

- CHRIS BLACKHURST

She chose as her subject the multifaceted threat posed by Russia, warning of the growing danger from Vladimir Putin’s regime. “We are operating in a space between peace and war,” she said.

The recently appointed “C” said “the front line is everywhere”, explaining that Putin is provoking a new “age of uncertainty” by busily rewriting the unwritten rules of conflict. “The export of chaos is a feature, not a bug, in the Russian approach to international engagement,” said Metreweli.

This week has seen the cementing of the axis between the UK, France and Germany with the promise of troops on the ground to monitor peace in Ukraine, a move that is bound to antagonise Putin. Concerns about Russian retaliation are growing still further following the boarding of a tanker in Russia’s “shadow fleet” by US forces off the British coast. The involvement of the Royal Navy will have been noticed and noted in Moscow. The hostility continues to ramp up in intensity.

The picture Metreweli paints is frightening: a scenario not of overt military strikes, but of covert “grey zone” assaults from every angle. The spy chief did not go into detail. We are all aware of the existence of planned sabotage, assassinations, hacking, cyber crime and drone attacks. Such concepts are well aired and are firmly embedded in the public consciousness.

Less familiar, however, according to security experts, is the notion of economic warfare. Key to this, to use their parlance, are non-state actors - not Russian diplomats or entities formally associated with the Russian state, but private individuals, organisations, movements and companies who secretly act in Russia's interest.