Security Minister Dan Jarvis said “Russia presents a serious threat to UK national security.”
Russia will be placed at the top of a government scheme aimed at protecting Britain from the effects of malignant foreign countries, Dan Jarvis announced.
The state will be added to the “enhanced tier” of the Future Foreign Impact Registration Scheme (FIRS), a position reserved for countries pose a risk to the safety of UK interests.
That means anyone who has been instructed by Russia to do their activities in the UK must declare it or face it in five years’ prison.
Jarvis said: “Russia presents a serious threat to UK national security.
“In recent years, its hostile actions have revealed that from deadly neural agents use in Salisbury, spying, arson and cyberattacks to cyberattacks, including targeting British lawmakers through a spear phishing campaign, and apparently an illegal invasion of Russia’s Ukraine, underscored the intention to reduce the safety of Europe and the world.”
He added that the enhanced tier of the scheme will ensure widespread activity transparency and provide a “critical tool” to detect and disrupt “harmful activities against our country.”
Related Stories
Jarvis said anyone who “performs activities as part of any arrangement” with many Russian state agencies, including the head of state, the military and intelligence reporting agency, must register with the FIR.
“We also intend to designate several political parties controlled by Russia, including the Russian Party,” he added.
The FIRS was originally expected to come into effect in 2024, but in August the new labour government confirmed delays in its implementation.
The registration scheme will be released on July 1st, Jarvis told MPS on Tuesday.
The government will work with influenced people, such as the business and academia sector, as well as the three-month bounty period to register existing connections before the FIR helps them prepare.
The announcement comes after Iran was the first government to be listed under the FIRS earlier this month, and the minister also faced pressure to designate China.
Shadow Interior Secretary Chris Philp welcomed the inclusion of Russia at the top level of the scheme before questioning why China has not yet been added.
He described China as the “elephant in the room” and told the Commons:
“They tried to suppress Chinese citizens here and infiltrate our political system.”
He said, “In my mind, China should be in its enhanced tier.”
“We are not planning on guessing which countries will be identified in the future,” Jarvis said, adding that “the government is taking a consistent, long-term, strategic approach to managing its relationship with the UK.”
