Christopher Steele
@christophersteele.bsky.social
Director Orbis Intelligence | Former British Crown Servant | Intelligence Professional | Russia Specialist |
I’m very proud to be involved in this major new TV production with Sky. The UK defence and security issues it addresses relating to Russia are very real and it couldn’t be more timely or relevant. I’m sure the Sky editorial team will do a great job on the final version to be broadcast in September.
The debacle over the UK Defence Investment Plan is extraordinary. Deterrence against Putin’s Russia and potential aggression from other autocratic adversaries depends on our gov’s ability to match its rhetoric with resources. Starmer and Reeves have failed in this and neither should stay in office.
The USA, under Trump 47, is rapidly becoming the most corrupt democracy we have seen. Trump’s recent moves to extort the DoJ, with his $1.7 billion ‘Lawfare Fund’ for convicted criminal political allies, and ban on IRS auditing of his family businesses are breathtaking. So much for the Rule of Law.
On this state visit, King Charles should put Trump straight on his recent comments about our armed forces, govt, great capital city, Falklands sovereignty and his contempt for our legal system. There’s much more to our bilateral relations than Trump but to endure they must be based on shared values.
The historic defeat of Orban in Hungary can be the catalyst to unravel the corruption, nepotism and subservience to Putin’s Russia that characterises hard Right political populism in Western democracies. Trump, the AfD, French RN and Reform UK must be exposed likewise and defeated at the ballot box.
It’s great to witness the resounding defeat of Orban’s corrupt and pro-Kremlin/anti-Ukraine authoritarian regime in Hungary. We must all work hard now to see this result repeated here and in other Western democracies under threat from Reform UK, the AfD, French RN and the horrible US Republicans.
The silence of our govt and other mainstream British politicians in response to Trump’s insane and genocidal threats to Iran is deafening. How can we normalise it? Political cowardice is the hallmark of this age. Our ancestors who fought and died to defeat fascism must be turning in their graves.
Support for the re-election of Orban’s corrupt, racist and pro-Russian govt in Hungary reveals the true fault lines of our new geopolitics. Putin, Trump and Netanyahu on one side- anti-liberal democracy- and UK, EU and Canada on the other, supporting it. Most likely to be the shape of our next era.
Watching members of the Trump administration try to ignore or absolve the Kremlin’s malign involvement in the Iran war is quite something. Russian military advisors are on the ground there providing targeting data against US forces and Russian components feature in both Iran’s missiles and drones.
It’s worrying to see how quick many people are, including in politics and media who should know better, to dismiss the lessons from Iraq when advocating deeper UK involvement in the US/Israel-Iran war. Whilst they score cheap political points, history threatens to repeat itself as tragedy or farce.
The levels of sheer ignorance, blundering and schoolboy immaturity displayed by Trump, Hegseth et al in relation to their perverse war of choice against Iran have no parallel in modern history. They were clearly manipulated and pushed into this conflict by Netanyahu who will be its only beneficiary.
The lack of senior USG representation at yesterday’s Ukraine war 4th anniversary commemoration event in Kyiv is both disgraceful and telling. Trump and his acolytes regard themselves as at best neutral in the struggle between a fledging democracy defending its sovereignty and an autocratic invader.
In agreeing plans for a new Chinese mega-embassy, our govt has prioritised economic expediency over national security, its primary duty. Whilst some sinologists doubt this was the right hill to fight on, the decision displays weakness and will lead to increased Chinese espionage in UK and Europe.
By overriding clear evidence of recently-increased Chinese espionage and transnational repression in the UK in its intended decision to approve the new Chinese ‘mega embassy’ in London, our government is shirking its first and foremost responsibility, to defend and protect the country. Just say no.
It’s imperative the BBC fights Trump’s libel lawsuit in Florida and does not succumb to his bullying and settle out of court. Trump’s aim is to cow the media by abusing the US legal and regulatory systems to strangulate justified negative coverage of his unhinged presidency. This has to be stopped.
Trump’s new National Security Strategy lays bare the US we must now engage with- a nationalist state, uninterested in promoting democracy, human rights or the RoL. Quite the breach with the country we’ve known/worked with for decades. But do the American people really support this? We must hope not.
The Western world’s geosecurity system, founded on NATO, Five Eyes and other institutions proven effective over decades, is likely now doomed under Trump. The conduct of an amoral and mercantilist US foreign/security policy by his unelected cronies Witkoff and Kushner is incompatible with democracy.
It’s disgraceful but also revealing to see how the hard Right in Britain, especially conservative newspapers and TV stations, are using the BBC Panorama debacle to normalise Trump. Trump is a convicted criminal and if not president, would now be facing gaol time for his role in the January 6th riot.
The idea that China is only a ‘challenge’ rather than an adversary of the UK is ridiculous. Not only has the MI5 DG said there is evidence of increasing Chinese espionage ops in Britain, but Beijing has bounties in place for the capture of various Hong Kong dissidents granted political asylum here.
We are living through truly strange times. Whilst our government fawns around an ignorant and narcissistic US president, normalising his misconduct and pretending he’s a reliable ally, Trump is trying to sell out Ukraine to Putin and limit the rule of law and suppress freedom of speech in America.
Putin was clearly better prepared than Trump and so could deploy his case against an immediate ceasefire and on the allegedly malign (pro-war) intent of Zelensky and the Europeans without much pushback. Whether (dubious) new US business opportunities in Russia or kompromat also featured is unclear.
Whilst we wish European leaders well in travelling to DC today to support Ukraine, we mustn’t allow what happened in Alaska to be normalised. Trump deferred to Putin there, an indicted war criminal directly responsible for several hundred thousand deaths in Ukraine. As a result we are all less safe.
The Russians are apparently untroubled by Trump’s newfound willingness to say rude things about them and are confident he shares their objectives of freezing the Ukraine conflict and resetting bilateral relations. They also think that he too sees the Europeans as the main obstacle to this agenda.
Concerning any possible Trump-Putin ‘deal’ in Alaska to end the Ukraine war, it is vital to remember Putin has abrogated every agreement Moscow signed with Kyiv since independence in 1992-the Budapest Memo(1994) and the Friendship(1997) and Border(2003) Treaties. Leopards don’t change their spots.
Ukrainians should be worried about the latest Trump-Russia shenanigans. Most likely for multiple reasons, all bad, a battlefield- and economically-weakened Putin is being allowed to negotiate as if from a position of strength. This US diplomatic aberration needs to be countered by European leaders.
Trump’s fear of the Epstein files and the utter nonsense he is talking about the Russia investigation to divert attention from them, are quite something. Wray and Comey as ‘Democrat conspirators’, our 2016 Russia ‘Dossier’ as fake, despite his repeated failure in court to sue us over it. What next?!
Gabbard, Patel and Hegseth - “the unholy trinity of utterly unqualified nominees, people put up for their jobs primarily because Trump and his advisers knew that they would be completely pliant and obsequious…and that Senate Republicans would have to bend their collective knee by confirming them.”
The Atlantic@theatlantic.com · last yr.Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard are turning America’s spy apparatus on its own employees, @radiofreetom.bsky.social argues.
Team Trump’s undermining of the integrity of the US intelligence community continues apace. Their attempt to cast doubt on the ICA’s 2016 judgement, that Russia interfered in the election to support Trump, is both wrong and dangerous. And it will cause lasting damage to the reputation of the USG.
Trump’s public prevarication over the US’s commitment to mutual defence of NATO allies under Article V is very troubling, and doubtless has been noted by Putin and Xi. It seriously weakens Western deterrence and however unpalatable, HMG must now build it into our forward planning with other allies.
