Report: UK officials ‘avoided’ looking into Russian meddling

A long-awaited report on Russian meddling in British politics has criticised the UK government for failing to investigate whether Moscow interfered in the 2016 Brexit referendum, the document’s authors describing the lack of curiosity about this threat to democracy as a major failure at the heart of power.

The report from Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee also painted a damning portrait of Russian involvement in British society more generally, including attempts to influence government policy by wealthy Russians with ties to President Vladimir Putin and the British financiers who help them.

Stewart Hosie, a committee member and member of Parliament for the opposition Scottish National Party, accused the government of “actively avoiding” allegations of Russian meddling, which he said was unforgivable after evidence emerged that Moscow had interfered with the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 and the US presidential election two years later. The panel called for the government to appoint a commission to look into the issue and report back to the public.

“There has been no assessment of Russian interference in the EU referendum and this goes back to nobody wanting to touch the issue with a 10-foot pole,” Hosie said during a press conference after the report was delivered to Parliament.

The conservative government stalled publication of the report for more than seven months, leading the Labour Party to suggest Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his party were trying to avoid questions about links between Russia and the pro-Brexit campaign.

Johnson helped lead the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union-EU and has made delivering Brexit his primary goal since he became prime minister last July.

Committee members said Russia’s goal in seeking to influence elections was to amplify existing divisions, and thus destabilise Western political systems. While the report said it would be “difficult — if not impossible — to prove” whether Russian meddling influenced the result of the EU referendum, it was clear that the government “was slow to recognise the existence of the threat”.

The report concludes that Russia sees Britain as one of its top intelligence targets, adding that Moscow’s attempts to influence the UK are the “new normal” and successive governments have welcomed Russian oligarchs with open arms. Russians with “very close links” to Putin are “well integrated into the UK business, political and social scene — in ‘Londongrad’ in particular,” the report said.

In a 20-page response, the government denied that it had “badly underestimated” the Russian threat and rejected the call for a commission to investigate alleged Russian meddling during the Brexit referendum.