Richard Moore, the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service, said the expulsions of around 400 Russian diplomats from continental European countries, including France and Germany, had dramatically reduced the Kremlin’s spying capabilities. Speaking at the Aspen security conference, he said Western intelligence agencies had made “fairly concerted” efforts to disrupt Russian spy networks since the intrusion. “So across Europe, about half — we’re finally estimating something north of 400 Russian intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover — have been deported,” Moore said. “That probably halved their ability to spy for Russia in Europe.” It is the first time MI6 has released its assessment of the impact of coordinated deportations in response to the February invasion. Although the figure of 400, across a wide range of nations, had previously been estimated, the figure had not been recorded. Russian spies, like intelligence officers of almost every major country, routinely pretend to take cover positions in their country’s embassy. Only a handful of long-time spies – the so-called illegals – pretend to be ordinary citizens, operating outside the diplomatic framework. Germany expelled 40 Russian diplomats in April and France 41. Britain is one of the few countries not to expel diplomats accused of espionage, although that is largely because the UK told 23 to leave in 2018 after poisonings in Salisbury and are not believed to have been replaced. Moore said two illegals had been exposed, including a Russian posing as an Irish-Brazilian who tried and failed to secure an internship at the international criminal court in The Hague in April. A Brazilian court has since sentenced Sergey Cherkasov to 15 years in prison for using fake identity documents. Moore said he believed the war in Ukraine was “a winning campaign” for Kyiv and that Russia “would find it increasingly difficult to supply manpower and material in the coming weeks” as the war headed toward a critical phase before turning the weather. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST The spy chief appeared to hint that Ukraine, backed by increasing amounts of Western weapons, would attempt to launch a counter-attack in the coming weeks. “It’s important, I think for the Ukrainians themselves, to demonstrate their ability to fight back,” he said. Moore said he agreed with his CIA counterpart, Bill Burns, that “there is no evidence that Putin is suffering from serious ill health.” There was speculation in the early stages of the war that the Russian president had cancer or another serious illness and was taking steroids. Moore also agreed with the CIA chief that China was not supplying Russia with weapons because Beijing was nervous about being hit by Western economic sanctions, but said he thought “if they could supply weapons and get away with it, they would they did”. He said China was “going into overdrive” to find the lessons it could learn from the Ukraine war and the Western response so far. “It is too early to say what lessons will be learned from Putin’s misadventures,” Moore said, repeating an earlier warning that Beijing should not underestimate the West’s determination to protect Taiwan from any attempt at forced reunification.
