![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/russia-uk-threats.jpg\")
A senior British minister has claimed that Russia\u2019s \u201caggressive behavior\u201d is a stark reminder that it has the potential to pose the greatest single threat to the U.K.\u2019s security \u2013 drawing a sharp response from Moscow\u2019s ambassador in London.<\/h1>\n\u201cContinuing to gather intelligence on Russia\u2019s capabilities and intentions will remain a vital part of our intelligence effort for the foreseeable future,\u201d Philip Hammond said in a speech to the Royal United Services Institute think-tank in London.<\/p>\n
The British foreign secretary said that it was \u201cno coincidence\u201d that U.K. spy agencies were recruiting Russian-speakers again.<\/p>\n
However, Russian ambassador to London, Alexander Yavenko, hit back saying that the minister\u2019s remarks \u201cprove John Le Carre right: intelligence services are a spiritual home of the British political elite.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a wide-ranging speech, Hammond said that Britain in the 21st century was faced with a diverse range of threats, hitting out at those he called \u201capologists\u201d for blaming the U.K.\u2019s intelligence service for radicalizing militants.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are absolutely clear: the responsibility for acts of terror rests with those who commit them. But a huge burden of responsibility also lies with those who act as apologists for them,\u201d Hammond said.<\/p>\n
Hundreds from Britain have joined Daesh \u2013 also known as ISIL \u2013 in recent years, many fighting in Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n
Hammond said a major security threat was from the radicalization of individuals \u2013 so-called \u201clone wolves.\u201d He said that the internet had become a source of terrorist inspiration, with much of the propaganda coming from terrorist groups like al-Qaida.<\/p>\n
Talking about \u201cstate adversaries\u201d Hammond accused Russia of \u201cclear disregard\u201d for the rule of international law.<\/p>\n
He said that for two decades since the end of the Cold War, Britain and its allies had sought to draw Russia into a rules-based international system but \u201cwe now have to accept that those efforts have been rebuffed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are now faced with a Russian leader bent not on joining the international rules-based system which keeps the peace between nations, but on subverting it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hammond claimed that Putin\u2019s alleged actions \u2013 illegally annexing Crimea and using Russian troops to destabilize eastern Ukraine \u2013 fundamentally undermined the security of the sovereign nations of Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n
Britain has joined the U.S. and the EU in sanctions against the Russian Federation following what the West calls the annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, part of Ukraine until March 2014.<\/p>\n
More than 5,300 people have been killed and 12,200 others injured in eastern Ukraine since mid-April last year in the ongoing conflict between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists, the UN high commissioner for human rights said in February (Anadolu Agency).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A senior British minister has claimed that Russia\u2019s \u201caggressive behavior\u201d is a stark reminder that it has the potential to pose the greatest single threat to the U.K.\u2019s security \u2013 drawing a sharp response from Moscow\u2019s ambassador in London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,63,17,101,14],"tags":[966,599,76427,6462,3785],"class_list":["post-56797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-europe","category-politics","category-world","tag-london","tag-russia","tag-russian-leader","tag-russian-president","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56797\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}