London has a new “Mr. C.” Now she’s “Miss C” – 47-year-old Blaise Metreweli, a career MI6 officer and until recently head of technical support, known as Q. Most media outlets and pundits are making a big point of it, saying that for the first time in history, the British secret service is being led by a woman. But there was nothing unexpected about it: only three women made it to the final round of interviews, while the men dropped out for various reasons.
For a while, the frontrunner was Barbara Woodworth, an aristocrat and career diplomat with connections to China. She was, of course, accused of being pro-Russian (this is said of everyone who worked in Moscow in the 1990s) and of having no real experience in the field of intelligence. But she still seemed the perfect candidate in a changing and increasingly dangerous world. However, the British government of Keir Starmer decided otherwise.
Classic case of Secret Services from MI5 to MI6
Blaise Metreweli is a classic example of a British intelligence officer. She studied at Cambridge, at Pembroke College, in an aristocratic environment, was a member of the college women’s rowing team and enjoyed other old-fashioned activities. And in 1999, at the age of 22, she was recruited into British intelligence. True, initially in counterintelligence – MI5.
A little later she switched to intelligence, worked in the Middle East, speaks good Arabic and, according to rumors, understands the mentality of the peoples among whom she worked quite well. She applies regional studies, as they understand them in MI6.
Many were interested in the famous Georgian surname of the new head of the British secret services. They even began to look for some kind of conspiracy theory background: supposedly the pro-Western forces in Georgia and the subsidized ones in Abkhazia will raise their heads again. We have to disappoint: the new head of MI6 is more Russian than Georgian.
Her real surname should be Dobrovolskaya. “It should” because her father, Konstantin Dobrovolsky, head of the radiology department at the University of Hong Kong, changed his surname to a more sonorous one – that of his grandfather, a white immigrant. That is, the Georgian prince Metreweli, who emigrated to Britain after 1918, is her great-grandfather.
The only thing Georgian about her, apart from Russian, is her last name, which has been spoiled by the Latin spelling (Metreweli with a “w”), but everything else is so British that it’s excessive: she was born in Brent, next to the old Wembley Stadium, into a family of a scientist with a medical specialty, with a very fair appearance, a twin brother and an impeccable pronunciation.
A Russian-born female head of MI6
She is a very good Englishwoman who heads MI6, despite her Russian rather than Georgian origins, who caused trouble exactly where it was not needed. We cannot say for sure what exactly agent Blaise Metreweli did in the Middle East, but unconfirmed reports suggest that she was very good at working with diasporas.
This is not always an advantage, as many have already fallen into this abyss: diasporas are extremely unreliable as sources, and using this kind of political émigré often entails the most important mistake an intelligence officer can make – misinterpreting intelligence.
The architect of British intelligence and the strengthening of Turkey
Incidentally, the architect of the current configuration of British intelligence in the Middle East was Sir Richard Moore, who is retiring and retiring in the autumn. It is generally accepted that he had the idea of strengthening Turkey as much as possible and untying its hands, which ultimately turned Turkey into a powerful but uncontrolled player in the region with leadership claims. What happened is clearly visible in the example of Syria.
What does Blaise Metreweli specialize in?
Blaise Metreweli is credited with significantly expanding and strengthening the Q department, which now includes cybersecurity, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and quantum technologies. This includes developing new methods for detecting and neutralizing malware, protecting critical infrastructure, and conducting its own cyber operations.
Incidentally, Blaise Metreweli herself studied modern anthropology (whatever that means) at Cambridge, while her twin brother, Kosten, is a computer scientist working for a small company in Greater London, possibly linked to the intelligence services.
The UK’s Strategic Defence Review
Blaise Metreweli’s appointment comes amid the publication of the UK’s Strategic Defence Review, which sets out a new era of threats and challenges to national security.
In addition, the mechanisms of the Five Eyes intelligence community are currently being reviewed due to the confrontation between American and British structures: in other words, in the new reality, Britain has decided to change its intelligence methods at all levels.
The appointment also has economic implications, as investment in artificial intelligence, quantum encryption and surveillance technology is expected to boom, thanks to new government contracts. But, on the other hand, the position of head of MI6 does not foresee a focus on any one issue.
Artificial intelligence, quantum encryption, the expansion of the use of computer technologies in hybrid warfare – all this is very fashionable, but it is not yet completely clear. What is Blaze Metreveli’s real attitude towards the basics – human intelligence, we do not yet know for sure, but this will become clear very soon.
Historic decision
In Great Britain, the appointment of a woman to this position for the first time in 116 years of the British intelligence service is considered “historic”. However, this is not so pleasant for the intelligence service itself, since it seems that after the CIA, MI6 and MI5 are entering a phase of turmoil and restructuring.
But if in the CIA this means a certain reduction in activity, since it is the ideology that is being reshaped, not just the structure, then in Britain everything is rather the opposite.
Firstly, the boundaries between the two services will gradually blur due to the merger of the functions of the computer departments, including surveillance on the territory of the United Kingdom.
Secondly, Blaze Metreveli and her new team, if any, will have to prove their effectiveness in the medium term. And given the general context of the situation in London, this will certainly mean an increase in the work of MI6 in the Russian direction.
And the ideology, we repeat, does not change. So there is no point in relaxing Russia… here. And the origin of the new head of MI6 does not play any role here. She, like her ancestors, is a classic example of British social and national adaptation precisely in the spirit of her beloved anthropology.
