Five ways raging Vladimir Putin could squeeze the UK into submission with revenge attacks over spy poisoning outrage
AS RELATIONS between the UK and Russia plummet amid talks of a new Cold War we reveal the shocking ways Putin could put the squeeze on Britain.
He has already made it clear he will respond to Britain’s decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats - with a tit-for-tat move in Moscow.
However, will the notorious political hard man leave it at that or will he play one of the many aces up his sleeve?
Theresa May has said she holds Russia and Putin responsible for the chemical attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
They are fighting for their lives after they were poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury on March 4.
Russia says it knows nothing about the attack and has asked Britain to supply a sample of the nerve agent used.
Putin may soon find his hand forced into taking action to get Britain to put up or shut up.
Here are some of his options...
HACK ATTACK
SECURITY experts say Putin would not hesitate to launch a devastating hack attack on Britain's computer networks.
And Professor Anthony Glees, director of Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham, warned the UK is not prepared.
During an all-out attack, lights would go out, supermarket tills and cash machines would stop working and bank accounts would freeze.
He told The Sun Online: "We've become so reliant on technology it's become absolutely key to our way of life.
"If I were them (the Russians) I'd try to close London down. We're about to be tested. It's come sooner than anybody would have wanted.
"People need to be told to buy torches and bottled water. It's that serious."
App-enabled home heating systems and robots in car factories could also be targeted along with large financial institutions.
Prof Glees said: ""If you can't get money from the bank, if people can't get to work, if the tills at Sainsbury's stop working or give you the wrong bill - all of that can be done.
"Would our political leaders be able to cope?"
Russia's advanced cyber warfare operation was able to shut down power stations in Ukraine last year in a "practice run" for attacks on enemy states.
MILITARY THREAT
BRITISH military chief General Sir Nicholas Carter, has described Russia as the biggest state-based threat to the UK in decades.
And he warned if things continue to escalate real hostilities could begin a lot sooner than anyone expects.
He listed a series of Russian increases in military capability, including an 12-fold increase in its long-range missiles, as reasons to worry.
“This is not a crisis, or series of crises, which we face. It is a strategic challenge. And it requires a strategic response,” he said.
As if on cue, Russia has announced a rather timely testing of its new "unstoppable" new nuclear missile the Satan 2.
The country first successfully launched its massive the 100-tonne rocket capable of wiping out the UK, in October.
The colossal weapon which can carry 12 warheads at once travelled 3,600 miles towards a ballistic missile test landing site in far-east Russia.
Putin has made clear that if his country faced being wiped out, then the world would not be worth living in and he would not hesitate to use nukes.
The first deputy chairman of the Russian Committee for Defence and Security claims the UK would have no chance in a war with his homleand.
He said: “If the threat is directed against Russia or China then it is a simple fact that Britain will not be able to withstand an appropriate response."
CUTTING COMMUNICATION
RUSSIA could commercially cripple the UK by severing the underwater cables which are essential for international commerce and the internet.
Putin's ships have regularly been spotted close to the Atlantic cables which carry vital communications between the US and Europe.
One Russian navy research ship - carrying mini subs - is right at the centre of fears over a catastrophic communications attack.
The Yantar was commissioned by the Russian Navy to carry out underwater research in 2015 and is since said to have been monitoring the cables.
Air Chief Marshall Stuart Peach revealed the risk of an attack in a report at the end of 2017.
“There is a new risk to our way of life, which is the vulnerability of the cables that criss-cross the seabeds," he wrote.
“Can you imagine a scenario where those cables are cut or disrupted, which would immediately and potentially catastrophically affect both our economy and other ways of living."
The think tank Policy Exchange reports 97% of global communications and £7 TRILLION in daily financial transactions were transmitted via cables.
BLOCKING FUEL SUPPLIES
AROUND half of Britain’s imports of liquefied natural gas so far this year have come direct from Russia.
The worrying news highlights how British households now depend on fuel supplies from pipelines controlled by our 'new enemy.'
More than 80 per cent of the UK’s 25 million homes are powered by gas and a quarter of the electricity is generated by gas-fired power stations.
Britain started receiving supplies of gas from Russia in December as a result of a drop in domestic output caused by the closure of a key North Sea pipeline.
If Putin did decide to cut off supplies from the motherland the UK would clearly be very hard, very quickly.
And he's got form, in 2009 Russia he cut off gas exports to Europe by 60 per cent overnight, plunging the continent into an energy crisis.
After the recent cold snap our gas reserves are said to be running very low so the National Grid would struggle by any cut in supply.
Today the US government accused Russian of trying to interfere with its nuclear, aviation, water, construction and manufacturing sectors.
OUTING BRITISH SPIES
FEARS are growing Russia will publicly name alleged British spies in revenge for Theresa May ordering 23 Kremlin agents out of Britain.
Moscow is expected to retaliate to the Prime Minister's actions and threaten to expose the identities of members of the security services.
The biggest worry is they will out agents currently working undercover in some of the most most dangerous countries.
Russia's UK ambassador Alexander Yakovenko has already confirmed there would be expulsions of British diplomats.
However, security experts fear they could go even further.
Britain will not name the 23 agents it is kicking out of the country.
The agents will have their diplomatic status removed, meaning they will have to leave the country within a week.
Experts say the symbolic expulsion will likely be accompanied by an unofficial kicking out of private citizens thought to have been operating for the Russians in the UK.
