In his second speech since becoming chief of the Secret Intelligence Service in 2020, Richard Moore said there appeared little prospect of Russia regaining momentum in Ukraine.

Delivering his speech at the British embassy in Prague, he likened the current situation in Ukraine to the Prague Spring in 1968 when the Soviet Union quashed liberalising reforms.

“As they witness the venality, infighting and callous incompetence of their leaders – the human factor as its worst – many Russians are wrestling with the same dilemmas as their predecessors did in 1968,” Moore said.

“I invite them to do what others have done this past 18 months and join hands with us. Our door is always open … Their secrets will be safe with us and together we will work to bring the bloodshed to an end.”

He described Iran’s decision to supply Moscow with suicide drones for the Ukraine conflict as “unconscionable” and it had provoked internal quarrels at the highest level of the regime in Tehran.

Moore warned that China and Russia were racing to master technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing.

He returned to the subject saying AI would complement the work of intelligence agencies not replace humans who could uncover secrets beyond technology’s reach.

“The unique characteristics of human agents in the right places will become still more significant,” he will say.

“Human intelligence in the age of artificial intelligence will increasingly be defined as those things that machines cannot do, albeit we should expect the frontier of machine capability to advance with startling speed.”