I haven’t been in London in more than 30 years, and when I was there, the streets were anything but mean. Aside from its historic beauty, my initial impression of London — in fact, of the U.K. in general — was that it was so “civilized.” My friends and I had no hesitation in visiting any neighborhood, or staying out late at night and walking back to our hotel. Aside from the “normal” amount of crime to be found in any major city in the world, London felt safe to me.

The world has changed since then, as we all know too well. Terrorism — of both the international and domestic varieties — is on everyone’s mind, all of the time. Islamist threats abound. But there is now another, equally prevalent danger being experienced, according to Ken McCallum, head of Britain’s MI5 . . . and that comes with the compliments of none other than Vladimir Putin and Russia’s military intelligence organization: the GRU, or Main Intelligence Directorate.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, more than 750 Russian diplomats have been expelled from Europe, “the great majority of them” spies, McCallum said. This obviously has affected Russia’s ability to conduct — let’s call it what it is — their spying activities. They have tried using proxies, such as criminals and private operatives; but they lacked the same level of professionalism, and were more easily detected. [Frank Gardner and Suzanne Leigh, BBC News, October 8, 2024.]

So now the Kremlin has resorted, in Mr. McCallum’s words, to generating “sustained mayhem on British and European streets,” including GRU-generated “arson, sabotage and more dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness” [Id.]

This, combined with other threats such as the 20 interrupted plots backed by Iran since 2022, has meant that MI5 has “one hell of a job on its hands,” McCallum said.

At a briefing at MI5’s counter-terrorism operations center in London, McCallum said that the first 20 years of his career there were “crammed full of terrorist threats. We now face those alongside state-backed assassination and sabotage plots, against the backdrop of a major European land war.” [Id.]

He added that, because of the UK’s leading role in supporting Ukraine, “we loom large in the fevered imagination of Putin’s regime,” and that further acts of aggression on UK soil are to be expected. [Id.]

*. *. *

The world certainly has changed in the past 30 years, and — for the most part — not for the better, at least not in a geopolitical sense. I will always be grateful that I was able to see as much of it as I did, when I did.

Because I sure as hell wouldn’t be doing any of the same things today.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/10/24