An Ex MI5 Agent Weighs in on How Russia Might React to Diplomat Expulsion | Good Morning Britain

a lot of the misconceptions especially within the sort of film and Hollywood world is that Russian spies are try to infiltrate Parliament's government's sort of foreign businesses things either in reality they're actually stealing secrets there's a there's a chapter within the book soldier spy talked about with the we had this Russian this Russian job where they were trying to steal tech military grade tech and that's the type of things that they're doing in this country because in in Britain were were a world leader in in laser tech military equipment things in that we use for satellites and they take decades of research and design so by stealing that that can advance their own their own military gains genomically without putting the researcher designer tech we know that they've been here doing that we tolerated their presence for so long why does something like this trigger their expulsion well to answer your first question the reason mi5 and the security service in Britain are so good at what we do is we like these operations up from the inside so if although other nations perhaps in the intelligence community might find someone with enough evidence to say right you've been doing wrongly something illegal you deport it straight away Faraz it's better to let these operations run so we can find out exactly why they're trying to steal the tech what are they going to do in their own country with this information we can then find out what they're going to use it for how it's going to further their military gains in it game stores so it lights things up from the inside that's why we let these that very interesting point thank you let's just go back to mr. Rifkind again as a former foreign secretary having heard that would you say that it's obviously much more than a diplomatic smack but for mr. Putin that this will actually really hurt his intelligence operation yes we have to realize that if a country like Russia is determined to try and kill people or attack them on foreign capitals there's no way you can guarantee you can stop that even the United States or China couldn't stop them doing that unless we make them realize they will pay a price now thinking for example how damaging it was to Russia's reputation when they were banned from the winter of limp and this is of a similar scale it's not just the United Kingdom that was the victim of this particular attack it's the international community countries as as far apart as Australia as United States the European Union think of the difficulties were having the EU at the moment but 16 ye you countries including France and Germany have expelled diplomats that's the world saying to Russia yeah and to mr. Putin the Kremlin in particular you are acting like a bandit not like the responsible president of a responsible country Russia is a great country this isn't punishing Russia this is telling mr. Putin in the eyes of his own people that he's been caught with his fingerprints on attempted murder well you mentioned the impact of their banning what about the World Cup the person who occupies the role that you used to do Boris Johnson the Foreign Secretary now has talked about how extraordinary it'll be as a propaganda coup that Vladimir Putin hosts the World Cup do you have concerns about that and is it enough that we are withdrawing our royal dignitaries and officials well you know it's going to be some months from now and I don't myself as I assume there will not be any prospect of getting such a wide decision throughout the world to withdraw the football teams from Moscow that the whole thing will collapse I don't think that would happen so it should Britain stand out and make such a decision I think that would be unfair on our footballers and I don't think it would itself can be the kind of action required political attack on Britain requires a political response and I think we should let our sportsmen carry on doing their proper activities okay let's come back to our ex mi5 officer here Tom Tom Marcus Tom what's your assessment of the impacts on the Russian intelligence operation around the world by these expulsion x' is it going to have a real impact on them i mean are they going to be aghast in the put in the kremlin that they've lost the access that they've had to our secrets yeah absolutely it action like they saw its its own precedent really on this scale coordinated globally and it will severely degrade what they're doing personally speaking I would I would think Putin is already a miss this move you've got a you've got to think where he's come from he's from an intelligence background he's already thinking ten steps ahead what ifs and he's already making those plans I would say I would I would I would think it'd be Daffy not to think that Putin wouldn't already be putting things in place so if we if we're expelling diplomats already he's ready for the next wave I would think and it's a malcolm rifkind I mean what is the you know what if this does spin out of control what is the worst thing that Vladimir Putin can do is it is it a cyberattack is it turning off the gas is it worse than that no III where I just disagree with your previous commentator on one point is that he will have anticipated this I don't think he did I didn't have dissipated I don't think many people thought there was any prospect of persuading the Germans the French historian's the Americans everybody else who have not been subject to this particular incident to respond in the way they have this is unprecedent it's never happened even during the Cold War so I think Putin will have been shocked and disturbed by what has happened yes there will be some retaliation that's unavoidable but it will he will not want to escalate it because at the end of the day it's not just Britain he's taking on it's now - over 20 countries including some of the most important countries in the world and he would lose that particular diplomatic battle if he tried so I think there will be some expulsion of diplomats but there will be no attempt to escalate it you

Channel: Good Morning Britain

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Keywords: good morning britain, breakfast show, news, morning news, gmb, good morning britain interview, itv, piers morgan, susanna reid, Talk Shows - Topic, ex spy, mi5, russian diplomats, russia today, RT, news - topic, breaking news

Id: p81PmEYXq8o

Length: 6min 10sec (370 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 27 2018