‘A big problem’: Russia ‘at war’ with UK, says former British spy – who was left wedding rings ‘threat’
Russia’s leaders believe they are “at war” with the UK and its allies but Britain is failing to deter the threat, a former spy who wrote an infamous dossier on Donald Trump has said.
Christopher Steele, 57, said he even suspected Russian agents may have left him a “calling card”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Former British spy warns about Russia
The wedding rings left as a threat
He said intruders put two wedding rings in his wife’s washbag while they were on a Caribbean holiday about 18 months after his name emerged as the author of the dossier.
Asked what message he thought they were sending, the former MI6 officer said: “We know where you are. We can get to you. Don’t think you’ll be able to hide from us.”
In his first British television interview since his dossier – alleging collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign in the 2016 US election – triggered a political earthquake in the United States, Mr Steele also claimed:
• He had evidence of Russian hostilities against Britain, including during the Brexit referendum
• Moscow thinks it could possibly collapse the European Union
• His wife’s career as a crown servant at the Foreign Office suffered in the fallout from the dossier, with her deciding to retire early
Steele has made a series of serious claims in an exclusive Sky News interview
Mr Steele – once MI6’s top Kremlin expert, whose advice was sought by UK officials long after he left the service – warned that Russian hostility is growing.
“There are serious people at the top of Russia who regard themselves at war with us,” he said, speaking in the library at Farnham Castle in his hometown.
“The fact that our politicians neither want to recognise or deal with that is a big problem.”
But Lord Mark Sedwill, the UK’s national security adviser until last year, said he thought political leaders do recognise the Russia threat – one that he said is “diversifying”.
“Every senior politician I’ve dealt with… takes any threat of this kind really serious, they take national security seriously,” he said.
“They worry about the impact on the democratic process. They are right to do so.”
President Putin‘s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, declined to comment on any allegations. The Kremlin has in the past denied all claims of election meddling and other hostile action.
Christopher Steele was interviewed by Deborah Haynes at Farnham Castle
Mr Steele left the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), better known as MI6, in 2009, after a more than 20-year career.
He set up a private intelligence company called Orbis Business Intelligence in Farnham with a fellow former spy, Christopher Burrows, 63.
In June 2016, they were hired – ultimately by a law firm representing Democrats – to look into possible links between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Over the next few months, Mr Steele compiled a series of unverified reports, which included claims of collusion and that Moscow held compromising video tape of Mr Trump.
A news website published the so-called dossier in January 2017, drawing furious denials from the then president-elect and forcing Mr Steele and his family into hiding.
The Steeles on holiday in the Caribbean
Mr Steele claimed the fallout from the furore “profoundly affected” the career of his wife, Katherine, who at the time was a crown servant at the Foreign Office.
“Basically that didn’t play out at all well,” he said.
“She decided at a certain point that, yes, she would have to take early retirement, which is what she did.”
Asked how he felt, Mr Steele said: “Pretty angry and disappointed – as she does.”
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development spokesperson said: “The UK government has been clear that it had no involvement in the production of the dossier.
“We do not comment on individual staffing matters.”
Mr Trump has dismissed the Russia dossier as a “hoax”, denied colluding with Moscow and denounced as false the sex tape claims. He has also derided Mr Steele as a “failed spy”.
Liz Harrington, the former president’s spokeswoman, said: “It was all a lie to try to discredit our movement which is more powerful today than it has ever been.”
Mr Steele said the Trump project was only a fraction of the work Orbis has done and is still doing on Russia.
Orbis Business Intelligence in Central London
In the run-up to the Brexit vote in 2016, he said he had been investigating the impact of suspected Russian interference in European countries.
Asked if he ever uncovered evidence of hostile operations against Britain, he said: “Yes”.
He said he would be looking at a range of different things.
“Everything from corrupt leadership money being brought onshore and invested in strategic industries and the like, which is something of concern, to potential attempts to fund parts of the Brexit campaign and interference in that, [the] Scottish referendum, some evidence of interference in that as well,” he said.
“That I regard as hostile behaviour, and certainly we came across that from time to time.”
Pressed on what sort of evidence he had, Mr Steele said: “I don’t have it to hand, but clearly some of the same playbook that we saw – so money being moved through deniable channels and coming out the other end, technically legal. There was a whole load of loopholes.”
Mr Steele also alleged that Russia posed a risk to wider European Union unity.
“I think they think they could possibly collapse the EU.”
At least four people have been killed in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv after a series of Russian attacks.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described one of the attacks as a “savage killing”, saying dozens of people had been injured.
It comes after Kyiv embarrassed Moscow when it launched a daring drone raid deep inside Russia last weekend, destroying dozens of bombers.
Firefighters work at the site of a building hit by a Russian drone strike in Kharkiv. Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile, attempted US-led peace talks between the two appear to be floundering.
During the attacks on Saturday, Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said: “Kharkiv is currently experiencing the most powerful attack in the entire time of the full-scale war.”
The first wave of the Russian strike was a large drone-and-missile attack in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Nightly attacks from Moscow have become a routine part of the conflict.
At least three people died and 21 others were injured. There are reports that some people remain trapped underneath the rubble.
Then, in the afternoon, Russia dropped aerial bombs on the city centre, killing at least one person and wounding more.
Ukraine and Russia also accused one another of trying to sabotage a planned prisoner exchange.
A woman was freed from debris in Kharkiv. Pic: Reuters/Sofiia Gatilova
Residents reckon with Russian strikes
As emergency workers fought fires at the attack sites in Kharkiv, residents had to deal with the fallout of strikes that could have claimed their lives.
Alina Belous tried to extinguish flames with buckets of water to rescue a young girl trapped inside a burning building, as she called out for help.
“We were trying to put it out ourselves with our buckets, together with our neighbours,” she said.
“Then the rescuers arrived and started helping us put out the fire, but there was smoke and they worried that we couldn’t stay there.
“When the ceiling started falling off, they took us out.”
A man is taken away by paramedics in Kharkiv. Pic: Reuters/Sofiia Gatilova
An apartment building hit by Russia’s attack on Kharkiv. Pic: Reuters/Vitalii Hnidyi
Vadym Ihnachenko said he initially thought it was a neighbouring building going up in flames – not his own.
He was forced to flee after seeing smoke coming from his building’s roof.
Diplomatic efforts stall
Several other areas in Ukraine were also hit, including the regions of Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, and the city of Ternopil, Ukrainian foreign minister Andriy Sybiha said.
Russia acknowledged the attacks, but not the deaths, saying it had targeted military sites, while pictures show apartment blocks on fire.
Read more:
Putin plays the victim to get the US onside
Putin vowed revenge against Ukraine, Trump says
Rescuers carry the injured after the first wave of Russia’s attack. Pic: Reuters/Sofiia Gatilova
The regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said children were among those injured in the first attack.
While a US-led diplomatic push for peace has led to two rounds of direct peace talks between delegations from Russia and Ukraine, they delivered no significant breakthroughs.
👉Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim on your podcast app👈
Later on Saturday, Russia and Ukraine also accused each other of endangering plans to swap 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action.
This had been agreed during peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday.
Elon Musk’s social media post claiming Donald Trump is in files relating to the disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has been removed.
The tech billionaire made the allegation on X as he traded blows with the US president in a dramatic public row.
In the post, which now appears to have been deleted, Musk said: “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.
“Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
He gave no evidence for the claim, which was dismissed by the White House – with the post disappearing from his social media platform by Sunday.
Users clicking on the message – first posted on Thursday – were instead greeted with: “Hmm…this page doesn’t exist. Try searching for something else.”
Epstein killed himself in his jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking minors.
File pic: Reuters
JD Vance has his say
Amid the fallout, vice president JD Vance said Musk was making a “huge mistake” going after Mr Trump but characterised him as an “emotional guy” who got frustrated.
He made the comments in an interview with comedian and podcaster Theo Von – one of the “manosphere” influencers the Trump team targeted to gain votes with young men during the election.
“I hope that eventually Elon comes back into the fold. Maybe that’s not possible now because he’s gone so nuclear,” Mr Vance said.
He also claimed that such outbursts “happen to everyone”, adding: “I’ve flown off the handle way worse than Elon Musk did in the last 24 hours.”
‘Big ugly spending bill’
Musk and Mr Trump’s relationship broke down publicly on Thursday, just days after the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive left his role as a special government employee.
In a fiery exchange, Musk posted a series of messages on X criticising the president’s signature tax and spending bill as a “big ugly spending bill”.
President Trump posted on Truth Social, saying Musk had been “wearing thin” and claimed he “asked him to leave” his government position – something Musk denied.
Read more:
Explosive row more terrifying than titillating
The big, beautiful bust-up everyone knew was coming
Musk then hit back with his claim about the US president appearing in the Epstein files.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the comment in a statement.
“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted,” she said.
“The president is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”
👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈
The spat hit Tesla shares, which closed down 14.3% on Thursday, losing about $150bn (£111bn) in value.
In an interview with ABC News, Mr Trump was asked about reports a phone call was scheduled between him and Musk on Friday.
He reportedly said: “You mean the man who has lost his mind?”
World
Kilmar Abrego Garcia: Man wrongly deported from US to El Salvador has been returned to face criminal charges
A man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration has been returned to the US to face criminal charges.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was charged in an indictment filed in federal court in Tennessee with conspiring to transport illegal immigrants into the US, attorney general Pam Bondi said on Friday.
Court records have shown the indictment was filed on 21 May, more than two months after he was deported from the US under a controversial 18th-century wartime law.
US attorney general Pam Bondi, alongside her deputy Todd Blanche, outlined the charges at a news conference. Pic: AP
In a statement, Abrego Garcia’s lawyer Andrew Rossman said it would now be up to the US judicial system to ensure he received due process.
“Today’s action proves what we’ve known all along – that the administration had the ability to bring him back and just refused to do so,” he said.
Salvadoran Abrego Garcia, 29, was deported from Maryland despite an immigration judge’s 2019 order granting him protection after finding he was likely to be persecuted by local gangs if he was returned to his native country.
The indictment alleges Abrego Garcia worked with at least five co-conspirators to bring immigrants to the US illegally and transport them from the border to other destinations in the country.
On Friday, Ms Bondi outlined the charges at a news conference, saying: “The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring.
“He made over 100 trips, the grand jury found – smuggling people throughout our country… MS-13 [international criminal gang] members, violent gang terrorist organisation members… throughout our country.
“He will be prosecuted in our country, sentenced in our country if convicted and then returned after completion of his sentence.”
Ms Bondi said Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele agreed to return Abrego Garcia to the US after American officials presented his government with an arrest warrant.
Read more from Sky News:
Trump says Musk has ‘lost his mind’
Israel warns of new Gaza operation
Chris Van Hollen (R) speaks to Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Pic: Press Office Senator Van Hollen/AP
Democrat senator Chris Van Hollen travelled to El Salvador in April to meet Abrego Garcia, arguing his constitutional rights to due process were being ignored.
Critics of Donald Trump have pointed to the deportation of Abrego Garcia as an example of the excesses of the Republican president’s aggressive immigration policies.
US District Judge Paula Xinis has opened a probe into what, if anything, Mr Trump’s administration has done to secure his return, after his lawyers accused officials of stonewalling their requests for information.
Jennifer Vasquez Sura (R) filed a legal complaint over the deportation of her husband. Pic: AP
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Officials responded by alleging that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang – something his lawyers have strongly denied.
In a separate statement, Pam Bondi also attacked what she called the “Fake News Media” and repeated the – yet unproven – allegations against Abrego Garcia.
“The Justice Department’s Grand Jury Indictment against Abrego Garcia proves the unhinged Democrat Party was wrong, and their stenographers in the Fake News Media were once again played like fools.
“Abrego Garcia was never an innocent ‘Maryland Man’- Abrego Garcia is an illegal alien terrorist, gang member, and human trafficker who has spent his entire life abusing innocent people, especially women and the most vulnerable.”
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway