Ok. I Hope there were industrial secrets or some weird espionage thing going on because the premise of foreign intelligence paying a guy to burn down a business sounds like peak Zapp Brannigan.
Looking forward to "yes I admit drinking one too many and getting naked at the Christmas party; Russia paid me to do it!"
I don't know how it works in the UK, but in some "enlightened" countries the police and courts can literally use your silence against you if you're accused of a crime. You know, the old "only the guilty have anything to hide" canard. Only in the US is clamming up in all circumstances the best option.
I'm not this dude's lawyer, either, but he is probably gearing up for some kind of cooperation-with-the-state thing in the hopes of weaseling out of as much of it as possible by blaming it on the Russians.
When you get arrested in England, you do have a right to remain silent, but it might be used against you. The police will typically say:
You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court.
And the fun thing is that if they are not made to stop this in some way, they will think that they will have this leverage to wield against us in the future :/
Problem is that they have already thought the last 100 years that they can do anyting they please. Other nations only exist due to their good grace.
That the reason East-European non-puppet countries headed for NATO ASAP.
I am so fed up with Russia.