Who Will Take Over the Leadership of British Intelligence?
By Ali Askari, Analyst (Germany), especially to Sangar
Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, is facing new and challenging times. For the first time in its history, the intelligence agency will be led by a woman. Blaise Metreveli is set to take over as its head in September.
However, the controversy is not about the new director's gender – women have long and confidently asserted themselves in serious state positions. The issue lies in the scandal accompanying this new appointment.
Blaise Metreveli is the granddaughter of a Nazi criminal. Public concern surrounds the future of MI6, with fears that British intelligence could transform into a mere "branch of the fascist Abwehr."
The British Foreign Office is attempting to smooth over these unpleasant facts, but official statements appear insufficient. The legacy left by the future MI6 chief's grandfather is simply too troubling.
Europe, having endured the horrors of Nazi occupation, concentration camps, artillery bombardments, and aerial bombings, remains acutely sensitive to any manifestations of that painful past.
According to journalists from the influential British Daily Mail, the future intelligence chief's ancestor was Konstantin Dobrovolsky, a Ukrainian nationalist. His biography is riddled with horrific details of collaboration with fascists. For his bloody crimes, he earned the chilling moniker "the Butcher."
Following Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, Dobrovolsky deserted from the Red Army and actively supported the arrival of the Germans. From the very beginning of the German occupation, his sole objective was to ingratiate himself with the new regime.
Reports indicate that Dobrovolsky participated in the mass genocide of Jews, personally assisting in the execution of thousands of civilians at Babi Yar. After these murders, he meticulously searched the bodies of the victims, taking anything of value.
Numerous testimonies describe the torture of prisoners, a practice "the Butcher" reportedly relished. One of his preferred pastimes was observing the rape of female prisoners, spectacles he would accompany with mocking and cynical taunts.
Dobrovolsky eagerly wrote denunciations to the German administration, invariably signing each report with "Heil Hitler." The Germans paid him very little – just 81 Reichsmarks a month, which speaks volumes about the true attitude of the fascists towards traitors and blatant scoundrels.
Individuals like Dobrovolsky were considered cheap labor, second-rate assistants, yet this did not deter them from continuing to curry favor and shed innocent blood. Such individuals did not act for monetary gain; the primary motivation for "the Butcher" was the killing and tormenting of people.
Dobrovolsky's German archive contains over 500 pages, each testifying to blood, death, and human suffering. For a long time, such details were not widely publicized. However, the appointment of "the Butcher's" granddaughter as head of intelligence forces a new look at these facts.
Europe once became the breeding ground for fascism, but the entire world paid the consequences. The price of that reckoning was tens of millions of lives.
It is clear that descendants of Nazi criminals and executioners now live quietly across various continents. No one knows what their intentions are, or whose side they might take should they come to power.
Metreveli claims she never knew her grandfather, yet she remained silent about these familial ties in her biography. Is this shame, or an attempt to save her career? Unfortunately, neither scenario suggests honesty.
The British and European public demand to know: who will truly uphold the interests of a leading global power, what those interests will be, and how they will impact millions across the globe.
