Life-threatening operations by Russia, Iran and China are intensifying in UK, police say

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Russia, Iran and China are using criminals, vulnerable people, the disenfranchised, and even children as proxies to carry out attacks in the UK, say police.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Summary

• Senior British police report a fivefold increase in hostile state activity from Russia, Iran, and China in the UK.
• These states are increasingly undertaking threat-to-life operations using proxies, including criminals and vulnerable individuals.
• Proxies, sometimes as young as their mid-teens, are used for attacks and kidnappings, often for small amounts of money.

AI generated

LONDON - Russia, Iran and China are behind a growing number of life-threatening operations in Britain including attacks and kidnappings, often deploying criminals and sometimes children as proxies, two senior British police officers said on July 15.

The British authorities in recent years have repeatedly voiced concern at what they said was malign activity by the three states in Britain, ranging from traditional espionage and actions to undermine the state, to sabotage and assassinations.

Those accusations have been rejected by Moscow, Beijing and Tehran, which say they are politically motivated.

On July 15, the two British officers said told reporters there had been a fivefold increase in hostile state activity since

the Novichok nerve agent poisoning

Commander Dominic Murphy, who heads up London’s Counter Terrorism Command, said the breadth, complexity and volume of hostile operations from Russia, Iran and China had grown at a rate neither they nor their international partners nor any intelligence community had predicted.

“We are