Sir Keir Starmer has left the United Kingdom "as good as defenceless" against Russian aggression, according to a security expert who warned that Moscow knows the country is too weak to retaliate.
Professor Anthony Glees of the University of Buckingham said the Prime Minister was "naive" for downplaying an incident in the English Channel, where a Russian frigate fired warning shots at a British yacht. The confrontation occurred just days after Royal Marine commandos and National Crime Agency officers seized a sanctioned shadow fleet tanker.
Incident in the English Channel
The Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich fired warning shots at a 40-foot yacht carrying British couple Alan and Jane Kelvey. Speaking at the G7 summit in Évian, France, Starmer described the vessel as "drifting" and accused Russia of being "reckless."
Professor Glees dismissed this assessment, saying: "Evian written backwards spells 'naive', and this is exactly what our PM was being. He blamed the Russians only for being 'reckless' in firing a volley of shots to elbow a British couple out of what Putin now regards as his space in the English Channel."
Retaliation for Seizure
According to Professor Glees, the warning shots were clearly an act of retaliation for the seizure of the shadow fleet tanker Smyrtos. He argued that the incident exposes the "pathetic state" of Britain's armed forces.
"Why does the PM back up the MoD and saying there's nothing untoward going on here?" he asked. "Is it the same reason the Met said there was 'nothing to indicate a State Threat' in connection with these carefully planned, intel-led attacks on our PM when a Russian link to El Money was clearly established?"
Professor Glees suggested that the government is avoiding confrontation because the UK is "too weak" to risk a dispute with Putin. "We're as good as defenceless at this moment in time. Putin knows it, Starmer knows it. So Russian aggression, even if it's tinpot aggression, is ignored. Saving faces rather than slapping them hard."
Broader Context of Russian Aggression
Professor Glees warned that the threat from Russia is not limited to naval incidents. He pointed to acts of sabotage on British soil, including the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 and the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018.
"It wasn't a case of the Russians are coming, but that they're 'already here'," he said. "Not just in a 409ft war frigate, 25 miles away from our prime naval base at Portsmouth, but committing acts of sabotage on the mainland."
The comments come after two men were found guilty of conspiring to carry out arson attacks on property and a car connected to Sir Keir Starmer. Professor Glees argued that the UK's weakened military posture emboldens Russian aggression, leaving the country vulnerable to further provocations.
