While “reckless” actions on behalf of Russia are concerning, the country’s influence and economic power is declining, according to new MI6 director Richard Moore.
“Russia is an objectively declining power economically and demographically,” Moore, the leader of the British foreign intelligence service, said in a rare The Sunday Times U.K. interview. “It is an extremely challenged place.”
The comments echo the remarks of Trump administration officials during former President Donald Trump’s term and amid myriad investigations into potential campaign contacts with Russian-connected officials.
Even Gen. Michael Flynn noted China was a more serious threat to the U.S. than Russia, a remark that was pointed out by former Obama administration National Security Adviser Susan Rice in suggesting Flynn be investigated for being kind to Russia.
Tensions rose last week over Ukraine, including reports the Russian military intelligence agency (GRU) blew up a Czech arms factory, Moore noted in the first radio interview given by an MI6 leader.
“When you get that pattern of reckless behavior, of course you then look at what is happening around Ukraine and of course it worries us,” Moore told the Times.
Russia heeded the warnings from the U.K. and the U.S., and Vladimir Putin pulled nearly 100,000 troops from the Ukraine border last week amid concerns of an invasion, Moore added.
“And clearly the treatment of Alexei Navalny, as we saw with the thousands of protesters on the streets of a number of cities, shows that there is a deal of disaffection with Mr. Putin,” Moore added.
Navalny, a Russian opposition leader, was imprisoned in February and held a hunger strike.
Source: Newmax
