Days before the release of the becalmed Intelligence & Security Committee (ISC) report on Russian political interference, we suddenly started to hear news of Moscow’s meddling on Thursday. It’s almost as if the government, sensitive about appearing like it wants to bury the report, suddenly wants to steal the thunder and look serious. Surely not.
Putting cynicism aside, it is worth taking a proper look at these two new stories of Russian interference and what they tell us about what Moscow is and isn’t doing – and, more to the point, what it can and cannot do.
The first story is a leak about a leak. Ahead of the ISC report, the government on Thursday confirmed what we pretty much all knew anyway: that a genuine document about British trade talks with the Americans, used by Labour during the 2019 general election, was publicised by Russians posing as whistleblowers.
After the document first leaked, a Russian network of online infowarriors – codenamed Secondary
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