A long-awaited report into allegations of Russian meddling in British democracy has found the UK Government ‘underestimated’ the threat posed by the Kremlin.
The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) said that as a result Britain is now having to ‘play catch up’ with the UK now ‘clearly a target for Russian disinformation’.
On the crunch issue of Brexit, the committee said it ‘would be difficult, if not impossible, to prove’ the ‘actual impact’ of any Russian interference.
But it said it had ‘not been provided with any post-referendum assessment’ from UK security services detailing potential meddling as it urged ministers to now launch a formal probe similar to the one conducted into the 2016 US presidential election.
However, the ISC concluded there is ‘credible open source commentary’ which suggested Russia had tried to sway the Scottish independence referendum in 2014.
The committee said it ‘questions whether Government took its eye off the ball on Russia’ as it warned that ‘Russian influence in the UK is the new normal’.
It blasted ‘successive governments’ for having welcomed Russian oligarchs and their money into British society ‘with open arms’.
This had provided them ‘with a means of recycling illicit finance through the London “laundromat”‘ as well as with ‘connections at the highest levels with access to UK companies and political figures’, the report said.
The results of the 18 month long probe were finally published this morning after a nine month delay.
The Intelligence and Security Committee today published its long-awaited report into Russian interference in British democracy
Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin have long faced accusations of trying to meddle in the affairs of rival nations
The report said: ‘Intelligence and Security Committee questions whether Government took its eye off the ball on Russia, finds that they underestimated the response required to the Russian threat and are still playing catch up.
‘Russian influence in the UK is the new normal. Successive Governments have welcomed the oligarchs and their money with open arms, providing them with a means of recycling illicit finance through the London “laundromat”, and connections at the highest levels with access to UK companies and political figures.
‘This has led to a growth industry of “enablers” including lawyers, accountants, and estate agents who are – wittingly or unwittingly – de facto agents of the Russian state.’
The committee said there is an ‘inherent tension’ between the Government’s desire to drive prosperity and the need to protect national security.
The report said that is now too late to ‘shut the stable door’ but that the UK can still introduce ‘greater powers and transparency’ to address the issues – measures it argues are ‘needed urgently’.
The committee looked extensively during its investigation at how secure the UK’s democratic process is.
It found that the paper-based voting system is ‘largely sound’ and is difficult to meddle with.
But it said: ‘The UK is clearly a target for Russian disinformation. While the mechanics of our paper-based voting system are largely sound, we cannot be complacent about a hostile state taking deliberate action with the aim of influencing our democratic processes.’
There have been repeated allegations of Russia trying to meddle in the 2016 Brexit vote and in the 2014 Scottish referendum.
On Brexit, the committee said it had not been provided with hard evidence from the security services that Russia had tried to intervene.
As a result it has urged the Government to now launch a formal investigation, similar to the one conducted in the US examining whether Russia tried to interfere in the most recent presidential election.
The report said: ‘There have been widespread allegations that Russia sought to influence voters in the 2016 referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU: studies have pointed to the preponderance of pro-Brexit or anti-EU stories on RT and Sputnik, and the use of ‘bots’ and ‘trolls’, as evidence.
‘The actual impact of such attempts on the result itself would be difficult – if not impossible – to prove. However what is clear is that the Government was slow to recognise the existence of the threat – only understanding it after the ‘hack and leak’ operation against the Democratic National Committee, when it should have been seen as early as 2014.
‘As a result the Government did not take action to protect the UK’s process in 2016. The Committee has not been provided with any post-referendum assessment – in stark contrast to the US response to reports of interference in the 2016 presidential election.
‘In our view there must be an analogous assessment of Russian interference in the EU referendum.’
The committee said that it had ‘sought to establish whether there is secret intelligence which supported or built on’ open source studies which suggested Russia had tried to influence the EU referendum.
But it said a request for written evidence from MI5 was met with a reply with just ‘six lines of text’.
The committee said it believed this was ‘indicative of the extreme caution amongst the intelligence and security Agencies at the thought that they might have any role in relation to the UK’s democratic processes’.
The ISC said such an attitude is ‘illogical’ and that ‘this is about the protection of the process and mechanism from hostile state interference which should fall to our intelligence and security Agencies’.
ISC member said the committee had not found any evidence of Brexit meddling but only because the Government did not seek it out.
Asked for the committee’s views on whether Russia did influence the 2016 referendum, Mr Jones said: ‘There was no evidence that we saw. The reason why there was no evidence was because no one asked the work to be done.
‘In terms of saying did Russia interfere in the EU referendum? We can’t say that because nobody really asked that either.’
The ISC report will pile pressure on Boris Johnson to bring forward new measures to bolster UK defences against potential foreign interference
The ISC did conclude there ‘there has been credible open source commentary suggesting that Russia undertook influence campaigns in relation to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014’.
Meanwhile, the committee raised concerns about which Government organisation is actually responsible for protecting the UK against foreign interference.
It said: ‘Yet the defence of those democratic processes has appeared something of a “hot potato”, with no one organisation considering itself to be in the lead, or apparently willing to conduct an assessment of such interference. This must change.’
The committee has called on social media companies to take action to remove ‘covert hostile state material’ and for the Government to ‘name and shame’ any which fail to act quickly enough.
The ISC also said the international community needs to do more to stand up to Russia and President Vladimir Putin.
It said: ‘We need other countries to step up with the UK and attach a cost to Putin’s actions.
‘Salisbury must not be allowed to become the high water mark in international unity over the Russia threat.’