IT is a long-awaited report into potential covert actions against the UK that was referred to the Prime Minister’s office last autumn, but eight months on, the Russia report has yet to be released and the myth around it is growing.
The Russia report?
The 50-page document was compiled by the last Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) into a potential threat posed by Russia. The document is believed to focus on alleged efforts to exert influence in the UK through social media manipulation, political contacts and financial donations, as well as allegations of electoral interference.
Witnesses?
Among those to give evidence to the inquiry were members of MI5, MI6 and the government’s eavesdropping centre GCHQ, as well as Christopher Steele, the former MI6 officer who compiled a dossier on Donald Trump’s links to Russia. US financier Bill Browder, a prominent critic of Vladimir Putin, is also said to have given evidence about links between UK politicians and Russian oligarchs.
Where is the report?
Completed in March last year, it was passed to Downing Street on October 17, having been cleared for publication by intelligence agencies. But Boris Johnson came under fire for blocking its release ahead of the December General Election, with then ISC chair, Dominic Grieve, describing the move as “jaw dropping”.
Now?
The paper cannot be published before the appointment of a new committee. The esteemed ISC - which holds government and the security services to account - is traditionally composed of senior parliamentarians and its members are appointed by the Houses of Parliament having first been nominated by the Prime Minister in consultation with the Leader of the Opposition. Parliament then votes on these Members. Once this process is complete, it is the Committee Members who then vote to elect their own Chair.
Cummings?
Johnson’s right-hand-man spent time in Russia after graduating from university in the 1990s.
What is the detail of the report?
It is said to touch on attempts by Russia to interfere in the EU referendum in 2016 and in the 2017 general election and follows a warning from former PM Theresa May back in November 2017 who said Russia was sowing discord by “weaponising information” in Britain.
Novichok?
Then in March 2018, as portrayed in the current BBC drama, The Salisbury Poisonings, former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal - who was a double agent for the UK's intelligence services - and his daughter Yulia, were poisoned at home in Salisbury by a Novichok nerve agent.
As the wait goes on?
It has emerged that Lubov Chernukhin, the wife of a former President Putin ally, has become the biggest ever female political donor in Britain after donating hundreds of thousands of pounds more to the Conservative party. She donated £325,000 in the first quarter of 2020, according to the latest Electoral Commission data.
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