The news of a new ‘Russia Report’ claiming to reveal Moscow’s attempts to interfere in the UK’s domestic politics, including the Brexit referendum, came as a surprise…
The intelligence report for the British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee on the alleged attempts of Moscow to meddle in the UK elections and referendums despite being heavily redacted suggests that the Brexit vote was not affected in any significant way, while stressing that « there has been credible open source commentary suggesting that Russia undertook influence campaigns in relation to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014. » At the same time, the report provides little proof that detected cyber intrusions and mentioned publications in the media were orchestrated by Moscow. So what was the reason for the leaking of the report, which has barely any solid proof of the Kremlin’s complicity? One of the possible reasons is to perpetuate Russia’s image as an adversary and « sabotage » any attempts by countries like the US, Germany, France and Turkey to improve ties with Moscow, suggests hedge fund manager and author Alex Krainer, explaining that such an approach is typical of the British Establishment’s foreign policy towards Moscow.
