Russians ‘set up shop’ in Scotland to force new independence vote

A US senator has warned that Russian cyber operatives are “setting up shop” in Scotland to foment support for a second independence referendum.

Senator Angus King told a Washington hearing into Russian interference in last year’s US presidential election that Scotland was also on the Kremlin’s target list.

He told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Russia was engaged in a global disruption effort that included elections in the US, France, Germany, and Spain, but singled out Scotland as an area where the Russians were “setting up shop”. He added: “This is a sophisticated worldwide strategy.”

Last night, a senior MP demanded answers from Facebook on whether Russians were using the social network to cause discord in Scotland.

Damian Collins, the chairman of the digital, culture, media and sport committee, said he would press the com- pany on the matter as part of the committee’s investigation into the impact of fake news on British politics.

He said: “We will certainly be asking Facebook about this as part of our inquiry into the power of fake news to disrupt our democracy.”

The warning came as Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, told MPS he had seen no evidence of Russian interference in British elections or referendums so far. He told the Foreign Affairs

select committee: “I haven’t seen any evidence of that.” Told that he seemed uncertain after giving a slow response, he added: “No, I haven’t seen it. Not a sausage… nyet, nyet, nyet.”

Meanwhile, Arron Banks, a leading Brexit donor, insisted the vote to leave the EU was not “funded by the Russians” after the UK elections watchdog said it was investigating whether he breached campaign finance rules in the referendum. The Electoral Commission said it was looking into whether Mr Banks was the “true source” of three loans worth £6 million to the Leave. EU campaign he chairs.

It is also probing whether Better for the Country Limited, a company that lists Mr Banks as a director and has its registered office at the same address as Leave.eu, was acting as an “agent” when it donated £2.3million to five registered campaigners.

Earlier this year, Sir Andrew Wood, former British ambassador to Russia, warned that the Kremlin may seek to interfere in any second Scottish independence referendum, presenting a “widespread set of risks” for democracy.

In Washington, Senator King spoke as US senators on the Senate intelligence committee grilled executives from Facebook, Twitter and Google about what they were doing to prevent Russia influencing elections using their networks.

Mr King said “It’s not only us, it’s the entire West… my understanding is they’ve set up shop in Scotland, which is talking about an independence vote from Great Britain. This is a sophisticated worldwide strategy. It hasn’t stopped and it won’t stop.”

Mr Collins’s remarks about Facebook potentially being used for Russian propaganda will be bad news for the social media giant. Its new third quarter results showed revenue up 47 per cent year on year and net income up 79 per cent, but Mark Zuckerberg, its founder, has warned it was “investing so much in security that it will impact our profitability”.