Russia could cause many thousands of deaths in Britain by attacking the country’s infrastructure and energy supply, the defence secretary warned last night.
Gavin Williamson said that sabotage could come through a cyberattack, the targeting of underwater communications cables or even a missile. President Putin’s regime was willing to take action “that any other nation would see as completely unacceptable”, he said.
His comments in an interview with The Daily Telegraph came as the government launched a review of the armed forces. Mr Williamson, who is being touted as a possible future Tory leader, told MPs that pen-pushers, poor contracts and bureaucracy would be targeted in the exercise and savings would be invested in the front line.
He indicated that he would be asking the Treasury for more money to ensure that the military was fully equipped to combat intensifying global threats. It is thought that Mr Williamson will discuss the review — officially the modernising defence programme — with Jim Mattis, his US counterpart, during his first trip to Washington next week.
Mr Williamson said in the newspaper interview that Moscow was spying on Britain’s infrastructure. “The plan for the Russians won’t be for landing craft to appear in the South Bay in Scarborough and off Brighton beach,” he said.
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They would be thinking about what they could do to hurt Britain: “Damage its economy, rip its infrastructure apart, actually cause thousands and thousands and thousands of deaths, but actually have an element of creating total chaos within the country.”
Russians inspect tech
A Russian defence agency delved into security software used by the US military and spy agencies and British industry (Mark Bridge writes). SAP, McAfee and Symantec let the agency examine source code in order to win permission to sell them in Russia, Reuters learnt. The companies said the reviews were done under close supervision in secure facilities.
