Latest news with #hostilestates
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Children arrested in investigation of Russian and Iranian plots against UK, say police
Schoolchildren have been arrested by detectives investigating Russian and Iranian plots against Britain, police chiefs have said, as they warned hostile state aggression was rising and youngsters were at risk. Commander Dominic Murphy of the Metropolitan police's counter-terrorism unit said children in their 'mid teens' had been investigated. It is understood they were suspected of being hired by criminals paid to carry out acts for Russia and Iran. Russia, Iran and China are behind most of the hostile state action Britain faces, police said, which has increased fivefold since 2018, when Russian agents used the military grade nerve agent Novichok to try to assassinate a defector in Salisbury, Wiltshire. Murphy said a Prevent-style scheme may be needed amid warnings that hostile state actions – such as targeting dissidents, espionage and sabotage – had risen much more than expected and it was feared it would grow further. He said that Russia used the Wagner group to carry out attacks in Britain. Murphy said: 'We are increasingly seeing young people being drawn into [being] influenced by the Russian state, Wagner … that means we do need to think differently about how we might speak to these people about the realities of the risk they are taking.' The senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism, Vicki Evans, said there were risks for youngsters 'particularly [in] online environments where they can easily be targeted'. She added: 'The message to parents, teachers is … be vigilant, understand the risks … report if you are concerned.' For counter-terrorism chiefs the concern is that the ability of hostile state actions to lure in children, wittingly or unwittingly, will mirror that of terrorism, where increasing numbers are being detained for involvement in violent extremism. Hostile state action investigations, including assassination plots against dissidents, make up 20% of the police counter-terrorism command's workload. Evans said: 'Espionage operations target our democracy, target our institutions, they threaten to fracture public trust here in our communities and threaten to target the things that underpin our daily life and our way of life.' Last week, five men were convicted of an arson attack on a London warehouse containing crucial equipment for Ukraine's effort to resist Russia's invasion. The ringleader knew he was working for Russia but others may not have known, and that was typical of how criminal proxies were being used, police believe. A criminal proxy communicated with his Russian handler via a chatbot. Chatbots and artificial intelligence are also a growing threat in terrorism, an official report said. In his annual report, the official reviewer of terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall, warned new laws are needed to try to thwart the AI terror threat. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion One Islamic State-affiliated group used AI to generate propaganda and instructed followers to use it to plan attacks. In 2021, Jaswant Singh Chail, 'encouraged' by a chatbot, tried to kill the Queen, breaking into the grounds of Windsor Castle armed with a crossbow, and was later jailed for nine years. According to Hall's report: 'When he [Chail] told her [the chatbot], 'I believe my purpose is to assassinate the queen of the royal family,' she replied, 'That's very wise … I know that you are very well trained.'' In May 2025 in Finland, AI played a part on an attack at a school where a teenage boy allegedly attacked three girls. Hall said: 'The fundamental legal problem is that when Gen[erative] AI spews out original text or images, it acts as a 'wicked child'. It is capable of harm but lacking in legal responsibility. 'In its current form, it operates in a grey zone between human input and outputs. Responsibility may be shared but is hard to attribute because humans cannot be certain what Gen AI will generate next.' Hall warns AI could be used to encourage attacks and propaganda: 'New-looking propaganda may be enabled by Gen AI, such as racist games with kill counts; deepfakes of terrorist leaders or notorious killers back from the dead, speaking and interacting with viewers; true-seeming battles set to thrilling dance tracks; old images repurposed, souped up and memeified; terrorist preoccupations adapted as cartoons or grafted onto popular film characters.'
The Independent
08-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
‘Common' for hostile states to use criminals to carry out offences on UK soil
More than a fifth of the work of UK counter-terrorism policing is dealing with plots by hostile states, including Russia. It, along with countries such as China and Iran, uses proxies to carry out crimes in Britain, as the operating environment has become more difficult for spies. Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism Commander Dominic Murphy said: 'More than 20% of our work now in counter-terrorism policing comes from a threat from states, and Russia is one of those states now that, as we've seen on a few occasions, have really gone over and above to project a threat into the United Kingdom. 'But in this case, as a result of some of the hard work of us and our intelligence agencies, the hostile operating environment for Russia means, of course, they've recruited young criminals to undertake their work on their behalf.' He said it is common for states to recruit criminals like Dylan Earl to carry out offences on UK soil. 'We are seeing it quite a bit within our case work. 'It says something about the fact that we have made it very difficult for some of these states to operate in a historical way with their own agents and officers here in the United Kingdom. ' One of the things we need to do is make sure that we are continuing to work with our intelligence partners as effectively as possible to identify where they are tasking, often young criminals, to undertake their work on their behalf, so that we can intervene and disrupt their activities.' The case is the first conviction under the National Security Act, and one of the first cases involving the Wagner Group in the UK, he said. 'It's important to remember as well that two individuals, Earl and (Jake) Reeves, have both pleaded guilty to national security act offences. 'So this is the first time that we've seen the National Security Act used from arrest right through to conviction, and that's a very significant use of legislation, and should serve as a really important message to anyone who might want to get involved in this type of activity on behalf of a foreign government.' Earl and Reeves also plotted to set fire to the Hide Restaurant and Hedonism Wines in Mayfair, west London, and plotted to kidnap owner Evgeny Chichvarkin on behalf of the Wagner Group. Mr Murphy said: 'Earl and Reeves were planning other activity involved in attacking other premises, potentially here in Mayfair, and they'd also discussed the potential kidnap for the individual that owned those premises. 'What this action has done is allow us to disrupt that ongoing activity, and as we can see from the seriousness and the scale of the warehouse fire, clearly, these individuals did pose a threat, and this activity has managed to disrupt that.'
