UK Parliament Outlines Comprehensive Response to Russian Threats

On 13 March 2025, the UK Par­lia­ment Com­mons Library report­ed that a detailed research brief­ing has been pub­lished exam­in­ing the UK’s mul­ti-faceted approach to coun­ter­ing Russ­ian threats. The arti­cle begins:

The Russ­ian threat to the UK has been acknowl­edged as “the new nor­mal” accord­ing to the UK Par­lia­men­t’s Intel­li­gence and Secu­ri­ty Com­mit­tee report from July 2020. The gov­ern­men­t’s Inte­grat­ed Review of Secu­ri­ty, Defence, Devel­op­ment and For­eign Pol­i­cy in 2021 iden­ti­fied Rus­sia as one of “the most acute threat[s] to our secu­ri­ty,” an assess­ment reaf­firmed in the 2023 refresh fol­low­ing Rus­si­a’s inva­sion of Ukraine. Despite gov­ern­ment warn­ings that Russ­ian incur­sion into Ukraine would face “unprece­dent­ed” sanc­tions, there were wide­spread calls for stronger mea­sures to counter for­eign influ­ence in the UK. The threat per­sists, with MI6 and CIA heads joint­ly warn­ing in Sep­tem­ber 2024 that Rus­si­a’s “reck­less cam­paign of sab­o­tage across Europe” threat­ens the inter­na­tion­al order in ways not seen since the Cold War…

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Key Points:

• Russ­ian influ­ence in the UK has been labeled “the new nor­mal” by Par­lia­men­t’s Intel­li­gence Com­mit­tee, with the gov­ern­ment imple­ment­ing leg­isla­tive mea­sures in response.
• Wealthy Rus­sians’ attrac­tion to UK invest­ments has declined sig­nif­i­cant­ly, with Russ­ian assets frozen and finan­cial hold­ings reduced from £30 bil­lion to £8.2 billion.
• The Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Act 2023 intro­duced new offens­es for espi­onage, sab­o­tage, and for­eign inter­fer­ence, though its For­eign Influ­ence Reg­is­tra­tion Scheme remains pending.
• Recent mea­sures include revok­ing Rus­sia Today’s broad­cast license, sanc­tion­ing Russ­ian state media, and strength­en­ing mil­i­tary respons­es to Russ­ian intel­li­gence activ­i­ties near UK territory.