Britain Plots Cyber Revenge On Russia For Novichok Poisonings
The head of the UK’s intelligence agency has warned that Britain and its allies will take revenge on Vladimir Putin’s regime for the Novichok attack in Salisbury in May, after Theresa May announced on Wednesday that Russian spies were believed to be behind the attack.
Speaking on September 7th, GCHQ director Jeremy Fleming (pictured) described the threat from Russia as “real” and “active”, vowing to “deploy the full range of tools” against the Kremlin.
Mr Fleming said: "We have ascertained exactly who was responsible and the methods they used.
"As you would expect, teams from across GCHQ have worked tirelessly with partners at home and abroad to ensure that our world-class intelligence has informed that investigation.
"Yesterday two GRU operatives were named and arrest warrants issued.
"The threat from Russia is real. It's active. "And it will be countered by a strong international partnership of allies. Able to deploy the full range of tools from across our national security apparatus. And ready to reject the Kremlin's brazen determination to undermine the international rules-based order."
It comes after Mrs May received the backing of US president Donald Trump, German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Emmanuel Macron and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. The leaders issued a joint statement with Mrs May, agreeing with the UK’s position.
The statement said: "We have full confidence in the British assessment that the two suspects were officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU, and that this operation was almost certainly approved at a senior government level.”
Prime Minisyer Threresa Mrs May has revealed that the UK suspects Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, members of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service, to be responsible for the attack on Sergei and Julia Skripal. The pair became critically unwell in Salisbury city centre on March 4.
The poison was smeared on Mr Skripal’s front door that day by the two Russian spies who travelled to the UK to carry out the deadly mission, according to detectives.
Four months later in July Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley fell ill after coming into contact with the same nerve agent at Mr Rowley’s home in Amesbury. Ms Sturgess later died in hospital. But Russia has strongly denied any involvement in the deeply shocking incident. The country’s UN representative accused the UK of stoking “disgusting anti-Russian hysteria”.
He said to the UN security council: "I'm not going to go through the list of this whole unfounded and mendacious cocktail of facts.
"London needs this story for just one purpose - to unleash a disgusting anti-Russian hysteria and to involve other countries in this hysteria."
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