Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to tackle Russian covert activity.

Russia is a top national security priority for Government, and we have made huge strides to counter the threat posed by Putin’s regime and to increase our resilience to Russian malign activity. This includes repeatedly exposing the activities of the Russian Intelligence Services and Russia’s malicious cyber activity, expelling Russian intelligence officers, and sanctioning individuals responsible for hostile activity.

The Government actively deters and defends against the full spectrum of threats emanating from Russia, working in partnership with our allies. We recently announced the expulsion of the Russian Defence Attaché and are removing the diplomatic status from several Russian premises as part of a package to tighten defences against malign activity by Russia across the UK and Europe.

This is the toughest package of bilateral measures imposed on Russia since Salisbury and sits alongside the significant powers of the National Security Act 2023, which are already being used to keep us safe from state threats.

Alongside the US and Australia, we have also sanctioned a senior Russia-based leader of LockBit, once one of the world’s most pernicious cybercrime gangs.