MAY BLAST AT PUTIN’S CYBER WAR ON WEST

PM accuses Russia of spreading fake news – and meddling in elections

THERESA May last night accused Russia of spreading fake news and interfering in European elections.

She said President Vladimir Putin’s regime was trying to ‘sow discord in the West’. In a direct message to the Krem- lin, the Prime Minister warned: ‘We know what you are doing. And you will not succeed.’

She said Russia was waging a ‘campaign of cyber espionage and disruption’, including hacking the German parliament and the Danish defence ministry.

And she revealed that Britain was tightening cyber security in the financial sector to ‘ensure the profits of corruption cannot flow from Russia into the UK’.

The broadside – the strongest from the UK Government in years – underlines how strained relations are. Mrs May’s tone is in sharp contrast to that of Donald Trump.

He said at the weekend it was

‘insulting’ to suggest the Kremlin had meddled in the American presidential election. The US President even suggested the two countries could work together in Syria.

UK-Russia relations have been in the doldrums since 200 , when former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London with polonium-210.

Britain blamed politician Andrei Lugovoy for the murder, but Mr Putin refused to extradite him to face charges in UK courts. The row caused a tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats.

Russian jets have repeatedly invaded British airspace in recent years, forcing the RAF to scramble fighter jets to intercept them.

Relations hit rock bottom in 2014 when Russia annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine, causing Britain and the US to impose punitive sanctions on the Putin regime. Russia also supported insurgents in the Donbas area of eastern Ukraine who tried to declare independence from the country.

Britain has deployed troops to Ukraine and the Baltic states to protect them against Russian aggression.

Earlier this year it was reported that most UK councils have suffered cyber attacks, with Russia believed to be one of the major culprits.

In her speech at the Lord Mayor’s banquet in the City of London, Mrs May specifically accused Russia of interfering in elections and spreading photo-shopped images designed to go viral online. She said the Brexit deal she was seeking to seal with Brussels would ‘underpin our shared commitment to open economies and free societies in the face of those who seek to undermine them’.

‘It is Russia’s actions which threaten the international order on which we all depend,’ she added.

‘I want to be clear about the scale and nature of these actions. Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea was the first time since the Second World War that one sovereign nation has forcibly taken territory from another in Europe.

‘Since then, Russia has fomented conflict in the Donbas, repeatedly violated the national airspace of several European countries, and mounted a sustained campaign of cyber espionage and disruption. This has included meddling in elections, and hacking the Danish ministry of defence and the Bundestag, among many others.

‘It is seeking to weaponise information. Deploying its state-run media organisations to plant fake stories and photo-shopped images in an attempt to sow discord in the West and undermine our institutions.’

Mrs May said Boris Johnson would visit Moscow in an attempt at engagement.

And in an upbeat message about Brexit, she spoke of the ‘defining British spirit’ that would see the country use its post-EU position. She said: ‘The task of a Global Britain is clear – to defend the rules based international order against irresponsible states.’

‘Sow discord in the West’