The report into Russian interference in British politics was finally published on Tuesday morning following a nine-month delay. Here are the five most interesting takeaways from the report:
1. The government ‘actively avoided’ investigating Russian interference
During this morning’s press conference, intelligence and security committee member Stuart Hosie made the extraordinary claim that ‘no one in government knew if Russia interfered in or sought to influence the referendum because they did not want to know’.
He explained that the British authorities ‘actively avoided looking for evidence that Russia interfered’ in UK elections. The report argues that the UK ‘failed to prepare’ following the Scottish referendum, which is described as ‘potentially the first post-Soviet Russian interference in a Western democratic process’.
2. The defence of the UK’s democracy is treated as a ‘hot potato’
Some of this failure is put down to an ‘extreme’ reticence among British spooks to become involved in the mechanics of British democracy for fear of accusations of foul play. The report states:
The issue of defending the UK’s democratic processes and discourse has appeared to be something of a ‘hot potato’, with no one organisation recognising itself as having an overall lead.
What’s more, the long-awaited investigation reveals that the British institutions designed to deal with foreign interference are fragmented:
Accountability is an issue in particular – whilst the Foreign Secretary has responsibility for the NCSC [National Cyber Security Centre], which is responsible for incident response, the Home Secretary leads on the response to major cyber incidents.
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