LONDON, November 27. /TASS/. Europe is already at war with Russia, Richard Dearlove, former head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service MI6, said in an interview with Sky News television.

"Donald Tusk [the Polish prime minister] has referred to it as a pre-war situation. I think he's wrong. I think it's an actual war," he said. "Now, that doesn't mean in the Russian mind, the military conflict, but it means hybrid conflict or different types of conflict in different arenas of interest."

According to Dearlove, who ran MI6 from 1999-2004, in the current extremely difficult situation, dialogue with Russia would be better than no communication at all. He said such dialogue is necessary at least to prevent further escalation, but the former spy master said he is not convinced that Russia is in the mood for dialogue with the West.

Dearlove also expressed hope that US President-elect Donald Trump will veto the agreement to return the Chagos archipelago, home to a joint British-US military base, to Mauritian sovereignty. The decision by the new British government to hand over Chagos, located in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius, was heavily criticized both in the kingdom itself and in the United States after it was concluded in early October.