RUSSIAN sabotage operations targeting undersea communications cables around the UK is a problem and “a vulnerability”, according to a former head of the Secret Intelligence Service MI6.

Sir Richard Dearlove told GB News: “The Russians did develop and have sophisticated means for attacking undersea cables. I think that they’ve probably had some incidents which weren’t necessarily proven, for example, the cable to the Shetland Islands cut earlier last year.

“It’s a problem. It’s a vulnerability. And I think it’s one that the UK being an island is very, very conscious of, and there are measures I’m sure being taken to defend that part of our infrastructure which is so critical.”

Asked about the health of Vladimir Putin during a discussion with Camilla Tominey, he said: “I’m not a clinician and anything that we say about that is guesswork, but I do have quite a few medical friends who watch him carefully and the consensus seems to be that he might have Parkinson’s [disease].

“But I gather Parkinson’s comes in different forms and it’s an illness that can be controlled or it’s an illness that can be much, much more serious.

“I’m not going to claim medical knowledge but I think that there’s a fair amount of evidence to indicate there’s something wrong with him.”

On weariness about the war in Ukraine, Sir Richard said: “There are problems in Germany, if you look at the polling in relation to Ukraine, there are problems in France, Slovakia and then of course, one has the concern of Trump and the possible Trump presidential candidature.

“These are problems but I’m not going to predict how it’s going to turn out but so far, so good. We’re sustaining our support for Ukraine and that’s important.”

Asked about a possible US presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, he said: “Trump is probably worse outcome of the two…maybe neither will be presidential candidates.”