MARK GALEOTTI: If he chooses, Putin could order attacks that would cause chaos… and serious loss of life
Kremlin insider Andrei Fedorov used a BBC Newsnight appearance to warn that Russia will retaliate against Britain for supplying Storm Shadow missile blueprints to Ukraine and sharing intelligence, with future attacks coming "from unknown sources" – a tacit admission that Moscow is already waging a deniable proxy war against the UK. Writing for the Daily Mail, analyst Mark Galeotti argues this campaign spans cyber crime, migration and disinformation, and is likely to intensify, making public vigilance increasingly important.
Galeotti details how Russia tolerates hacking gangs, phishing operations and ransomware attacks provided their victims are Western, citing last year's attacks on Marks & Spencer, Co-op, Harrods and Jaguar Land Rover; the malware reportedly avoids Cyrillic-language systems to spare Russian networks. He also describes Russian efforts to channel migrants across the Norwegian and Finnish borders, now shifted towards laundering trafficking gangs' money via financial networks in the Gulf, particularly the UAE, and the use of AI-powered "troll farms" to spread targeted disinformation across UK social media, exploiting any ideology to sow division rather than pursuing the dogma-driven approach of the Soviet era.
- Kremlin insider warns Britain faces retaliation "from unknown sources" over Ukraine support
- Russia blamed for cyber attacks, migrant-trafficking finance and AI disinformation campaigns
- Analyst says Moscow's deniable proxy war against the UK is set to escalate
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Russia and the West have been locked in growing tension since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with Britain among the countries supplying Kyiv with weapons and intelligence, including missile technology. Beyond the battlefield, security officials have long warned that Moscow uses less visible methods against Western countries, sometimes described as "hybrid warfare", where responsibility is hard to prove and can be denied.
These methods reportedly include cyber attacks by criminal hacking groups operating with tacit tolerance from Russian authorities, efforts to direct migrants towards European borders, and online disinformation campaigns designed to spread division on social media. Recent incidents affecting major British retailers and manufacturers have been cited by analysts as possible examples of this kind of activity, though attributing individual attacks to any state is often difficult and contested.
Mark Galeotti is a British academic and writer specialising in Russian security and intelligence affairs, frequently commentating on Kremlin strategy for UK media. This background matters because it shapes how any warnings about future Russian action, and any newly reported incidents, are likely to be understood and discussed by security experts and policymakers.