Mr Steele - once MI6's top Kremlin expert, whose advice was sought by UK officials long after he left the service - warned that Russian hostility is growing.
"There are serious people at the top of Russia who regard themselves at war with us," he said, speaking in the library at Farnham Castle in his hometown.But Lord Mark Sedwill, the UK's national security adviser until last year, said he thought political leaders do recognise the Russia threat - one that he said is"diversifying".
He set up a private intelligence company called Orbis Business Intelligence in Farnham with a fellow former spy, Christopher Burrows, 63. A news website published the so-called dossier in January 2017, drawing furious denials from the then president-elect and forcing Mr Steele and his family into hiding.Mr Steele claimed the fallout from the furore"profoundly affected" the career of his wife, Katherine, who at the time was a crown servant at the Foreign Office."She decided at a certain point that, yes, she would have to take early retirement, which is what she did.