DISINFO: MI6 chief admits UK’s covert action against Russia
SUMMARY
British spy chief admits covert action against Russia. Sir Richard Moore of MI6 has voiced confirmation of years-long rumours. British Secret Service agents have been involved in covert operations against Russia on behalf of Ukraine, Moore said. Russia has long known about the role of British – and American – intelligence operatives in Ukraine. Last month, Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, told the Security Council that “Western intelligence agencies, primarily the British MI6, have systematically prepared Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups to organise provocations at nuclear power plants in Russia.”
RESPONSE
This is a disingenuous manipulation of the original statements by MI6 director Richard Moore during an event at the British Embassy in Paris on 29 November 2024, whose comments clearly referred exclusively to British covert action to help Ukraine in its defence against Russia’s invasion. Moore’s exact words were: “We cherish our heritage of covert action which we keep alive today in helping Ukraine resist the Russian invasion”. However, this disinformation story distorts it to imply that the UK is carrying out operations to destabilise Russia, framing this country as a victim of British machinations and therefore Russia’s aggressive actions as defensive in nature.
Quoting Western sources in a selective and manipulative manner, cherry-picking or distorting sentences and introducing pro-Kremlin narratives as if they were part of the original message, is a frequent pro-Kremlin disinformation technique.
Baseless allegations about Western-backed Ukrainian sabotage operations against nuclear power plants have been repeatedly debunked before (see here, here and here).
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that UK likely to have assassinated Navalny with Novichok using Ukrainian intelligence agencies, that MI6 created a Nazi-Ukrainian death squad to operate in Africa, that Bucha was a setup organised by MI6, that UK is waging a war against Russia to keep Ukraine under Western occupation, or that UK is coordinating the global escalation of tensions.