Why would Putin want to elect Simon Busuttil?

Yesterday will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the more bizarre days in Maltese electoral history.

But before delving into the somewhat murky waters of the Prime Minister Muscat’s cloak-anddagger – not to mention diplomatically dangerous – assertions about Russia’s nefarious interests in Maltese political affairs, one central question needs to be asked: Why, exactly, would Vladimir Putin want to see Simon Busuttil elected?

The fact of the matter is that if asked to choose a preferred leader for Malta, Putin would undoubtedly choose a Socialist prime minister who has consistently, over his tenure, looked to the east – courting and selling state assets to countries such as Azerbaijan and China – over a Christian Democrat who believes so wholeheartedly in the European project.

The suggestion that people in the upper echelons of the Kremlin – who are known to do nothing without Putin’s seal of approval – have plotted to derail the Maltese elections to remove Joseph Muscat from power by concocting the Muscat-Egrant story, using the services of a Russian fake whistleblower employed at Pilatus Bank, is a only slightly more absurd a concept than believing Putin even cares who the leader of Malta may or may not be.

The prime minister yesterday morning asserted that he has information from Malta’s security services that Russia was interfering in the Maltese electoral process with the aim of dethroning him as revenge for Malta’s refusal, last November, to refuel a Russian

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naval asset heading to Syria, as well as for facilitating Ukraine’s entry into the EU’s visa waiver programme.

Such information, he said, came by way of “allied countries,” and an unsubstantiated article appearing yesterday morning on a French intelligence-related website said the agencies expressing such concern were America’s Central Intelligence Agency and the UK’s MI6.

If the prime minister can substantiate his claims, then he must do so immediately. And if he cannot do so publically, he needs to immediately convene the Security Services Committee, of which the Opposition leader is a member, to brief them on the situation.

Allegations such as those being made by the prime minister cannot simply be left hanging over the election campaign like some ominous cloud. If the prime minister has solid information that the Maltese electoral process is being tampered with by a foreign state, action must be taken immediately at both national and European Union level.

At EU level because the prime minister himself is alleging that Russia is tampering with the election process not only in an EU member state, but a member state that currently holds the EU Presidency. The upcoming Maltese election will also determine who will hold the Presidency for the rest of the term, which means that Russia would effectively be attempting to dictate who holds this important office.

As such, this is bigger than Joseph Muscat and Malta, and it is hoped that the prime minister is not playing Russian roulette with matters of such magnitude simply to gain political mileage or to attempt to clear himself of the Egrant allegations hanging over his head. Dr Muscat never said how long he has been in possession of such information but some other obvious questions that must be asked are: What diplomatic action has the prime minister taken with respect to this information, and has he even summoned the Russian ambassador to explain this alleged act of belligerence toward Malta?

If the prime minister does not substantiate his claims in public or to the Security Services Committee, and if he has not taken any action vis-à-vis the Russian ambassador, the information he made public yesterday – which in itself arguably constitutes a betrayal of the national security interest – his statements can only be put down to yet another red herring thrown to the electorate.

They can also be put down to yet another case of riding on the coattails of the widely reported American political scene, where it is alleged that Russia tampered with the American electoral process last year. After all, we have already seen how Dr Muscat and his ministers so readily and so keenly latched on to Donald Trump’s ‘fake news’ mantra.

Dr Muscat yesterday raised the political stakes tied to this election with his Russia allegations, and if he fails to substantiate those claims, he cannot be taken seriously.