LONDON – Britain’s Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has accused Russia ofspying on its critical infrastructure as part of possible plans to create“total chaos” in the country that could “cause thousands and thousands ofdeaths”.
In unusually alarmist words from a senior minister Williamson toldthe Daily Telegraph that, in its research on the UK power supplyconnections with Europe, Moscow appeared intent on sowing “panic” andhurting Britain.
“What they are looking at doing is they are going to be thinking ‘how canwe just cause so much pain to Britain?’” he said in comments published onThursday night.
“Damage its economy, rip its infrastructure apart, actually cause thousandsand thousands and thousands of deaths, but actually have an element ofcreating total chaos within the country.”
Williamson, who only became defence chief in November after predecessorMichael Fallon resigned over allegations of misconduct, gave the interviewat the outset of a new five-month defence review.
He is reportedly pressuring finance minister Philip Hammond to allocatemore money to defence and scrap further cuts to Britain’s strained armedforces.
In the interview, the minister said Russia acts in a way “that any othernation would see as completely unacceptable”.
“Why would they keep photographing and looking at power stations, why arethey looking at the interconnectors that bring so much electricity and somuch energy into our country,” he questioned in the paper.
“They are looking at these things because they are saying these are theways that we can hurt Britain.”
Earlier this week Fallon joined calls from the head of the army for moreBritish military spending, amid warnings the country may struggle to matchRussian battlefield capabilities.
Meanwhile, the head of the National Cyber Security Centre said the countrywill likely face a major cyber-attack within two years.
Ciaran Martin told The Guardian it was inevitable a hostile actor wouldlaunch an online attack aimed at crippling Britain’s criticalinfrastructure, such as energy supplies, and it was lucky not to havefallen victim to such a strike already.
Williamson, who is tipped as a possible future ruling Conservative partyleader, described his scenario planning as “the real threat that I believethe country is facing at the moment.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said it had nothing further to addto his remarks.
The Russian Embassy in London could not be reached for comment Thursday.