Russia looking to cause thousands of deaths in Britain, claims UK Defence Minister

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday that British defence minister Gavin Williamson's comments showed that he had lost his understanding of what was reasonable.

By: Reuters | London | Updated: January 26, 2018 7:57 pm

Russia looking to cause thousands of deaths in Britain

“What they are looking at doing is they are going to be thinking ‘How can we just cause so much pain to Britain?’. Damage its economy, rip its infrastructure apart, actually cause thousands and thousands and thousands of deaths, but actually have an element of creating total chaos within the country”, said Gavin Williamson. (Photo: Reuters)

Britain’s defence minister warned that Russia was looking to damage the British economy by attacking its infrastructure, a move he said could cause “thousands and thousands and thousands of deaths”, The Telegraph newspaper reported. Relations between Russia and Britain are strained. Prime Minister Theresa May last year accused Moscow of military aggression and in December, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said there was evidence showing Russian meddling in Western elections.

Britain has also scrambled jets in recent months to intercept Russian jets near the United Kingdom’s airspace. “The plan for the Russians won’t be for landing craft to appear in the South Bay in Scarborough, and off Brighton Beach,” defence minister Gavin Williamson, tipped as a possible successor to May, was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.