A member of Russia’s state Duma defence committee has threatened to “make life quite difficult for Great Britain” after Russia’s intelligence chief accused British spies of involvement in the shooting of a senior Russian general. The rhetoric is alarming even by Moscow’s standards, with references to blocking Britain’s maritime communications and explicit talk of retaliation along “the entire chain.”
The provocation began when FSB director Alexander Bortnikov, without providing evidence, alleged that British intelligence services were behind the shooting of General Vladimir Alekseyev in Moscow earlier this month. Alekseyev, who has been sanctioned by both the UK and EU for his alleged role in orchestrating the Salisbury Novichok poisonings, was shot and seriously wounded. One suspect has been extradited from the UAE.
“We see a British connection here, first and foremost,” Bortnikov said in a television interview. Duma member Andrei Kolesnik then escalated matters: “They will answer personally, all along the chain, for General Alekseyev. It’s an island. Its maritime communications can be blocked very seriously.”
Kolesnik also accused Britain of involvement in blocking Russian shipping lanes in the Baltic Sea and participating in the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage. Russia has made the pipeline accusation before. The UK Ministry of Defence has denied it, calling the claims “peddling false stories of an epic scale” designed to detract from Russia’s handling of the invasion of Ukraine.
None of this should be taken lightly, but it helps to have context. Russia regularly makes bellicose statements towards the UK, usually following embarrassing security incidents or when it needs a foreign target to blame for domestic problems. A general sanctioned for the Salisbury poisonings being shot in Moscow is exactly the kind of event that prompts this pattern: blame Britain, threaten consequences, provide no evidence, and move on. Whether the threats amount to anything beyond rhetoric is another matter entirely.