The famous “Russian report” has haunted British politics for nine long months. This investigative work by the Parliamentary Committee on Security in the House of Commons had been ready since October, but its publication was blocked by Downing Street ahead of the general election in December 2019.
Finally made public Tuesday, July 21, this document points in a very disturbing way to the inaction of successive conservative governments since 2014: those of David Cameron and Theresa May, and now that of Boris Johnson. According to the report, they did not do enough to prevent – or learn from – Moscow’s attempts to interfere in national polls, including the 2016 referendum on European Union (EU) membership. The document further points out that part of the political class, notably the Lords and the Conservative Party, have benefited greatly from Russian money without discussing its color or provenance.
Chaired until last autumn by the moderate conservative Dominic Grieve, the parliamentary committee had privileged access to classified documents and to the British intelligence services, MI5 and MI6. Its observation is clear (article 6 of the report): Russia, qualified as an “Sophisticated” in terms of cyber attacks, “Considers the United Kingdom to be one of its very first Western intelligence targets (…), just behind the United States and NATO [Organisation du traité de l’Atlantique Nord]. It is probably linked to our proximity to the United States and to the fact that we are considered a central place for the anti-Russian lobby ”.
“From potential partner to threat”
It is also clear, according to the report, “That for some time the Russia of [Vladimir] Putin has gone from a potential partner to an established threat, refusing to adhere to international rules – the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, in 2006, and the annexation of Crimea in 2014, proved it ”. And yet, with the exception of the very firm response from London to the attempted poisoning on its territory of the former double agent Sergei Skripal in 2018 (Theresa May had succeeded in federating an international response, with the consequence of the expulsion of 153 Russian diplomats), “Until recently, the government seriously underestimated the required response to Russian threats – and he always lags behind ”.
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