Russia "Doesn't Care" About Breaking The Law Warns Former GCHQ Director

10 September 2018, 14:56 | Updated: 10 September 2018, 16:36

A former director of GCHQ warns that Russia "does not care" about breaking the law or inflicting damage on populations in both cyberspace and on the ground.

Robert Hannigan told Shelagh Fogarty that Russia "has been behaving in an aggressive way" in cyberspace for the past few years, drawing comparisons to the poisoning of former-Russian spy Sergei Skripal.

The former head of GCHQ also said that there has been a "pattern of interference" and that while the the US election hack was very prolific, it was "not the most destructive".

When Shelagh pressed Mr Hannigan as to whether Russia are ahead of the game, he said that they weren't but warned that they "operate under different rules".

"We're not prepared to break the law and inflict damage on populations in the way that they would."

Mr Hannigan continued: "Their behaviour is consistent.

"If you look at what they did in Salisbury, they didn't really care that there might be other people hurt or there's collateral damage.

"They don't care in cyberspace either.

"Western countries do absolutely care and are not going to do the sorts of things that the Russians would do."