PUTIN ATTACK: Former MI6 head labels Russia VIOLENT - 'they kill each other'

THE FORMER head of MI6 warned of the continued risk of Russian aggression, explaining that it is a “violent” country and this runs in its DNA.

The comments came as part of an interview that Sky News re-aired this afternoon as a reminder of its salience as tensions in Ukraine continue to escalate. Sir Richard Dearlove told Sky’s Sophy Ridge in October: “It's deeply embedded in Russia's DNA to use the capabilities that it has to disrupt our nations, to pursue their own national interest. To, as it were, reinforce Putin in power.

“It’s a rather terrible thing to say but it's a violent country and they tend to kill each other.”

Speaking on the botched Salisbury poisonings earlier in the year, Sir Dearlove added: “The attack in the UK fits a historical pattern.

“Russia historically has always used assassination as a weapon.

“It's part of the Russian political DNA.”

Sky News re-ran the former MI6 interview amid escalating Russia-Ukraine relations

Sky News re-ran the former MI6 interview amid escalating Russia-Ukraine relations (Image: Sky)

However, the former intelligence officer conceded: “We’re no longer in the Cold War and I don’t see that the threat that Russia presents now is equivalent to the situation that we had in the Cold War.”

Russia on Saturday dismissed a statement by the leaders of France and Germany accusing it of using military force and carrying out illegitimate checks on Ukrainian vessels in the Black Sea.

In asking Moscow on Friday to release 24 Ukrainian sailors captured last month near the Kerch Strait, which adjoins Crimea and gives Ukrainian ports on the Azov Sea an exit to the Black Sea, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron listed issues that "greatly concern us".

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Merkel in a phone call that the sailors were under investigation and were being dealt with in accordance with Russian law, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by the news agency RIA.