The Russia connectionU.K. Government, Intel. Took "Eye Off the Ball” Regarding Russia’s Direct Threat to U.K.: Report

A report on Russian interference in British politics concluded on Tuesday that the Kremlin tried to influence the outcome of the 2016 Brexit referendum and the British government’s ignorance of potential meddling was “astonishing.”

The report also found similar evidence for Russian interference in the Scottish independence referendum of 2014.

The 55-page document, which has been released after a 9-month delay – the committee said the reasons Boris Johnson and his government gave for the delays in the publication of the report were “not true” — paints a worrying picture of the U.Ks vulnerability to a nation which sees foreign policy as a “zero-sum game” and believes any action it can take to damage the West is “fundamentally good for Russia.”

The committee says that the threat posed by Russia to U.K. interests was evident as far back as 2006 after the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. It was reinforced by events such as the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

The committee says, however, that such warnings did not result in the intelligence agencies reassessing their post-Cold War attitude to Russia and reprioritizing it as an area of concern to national interests.

“On figures alone, it could be said that they (the intelligence agencies) took their eye off the ball,” the report states.

The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), which conducted the investigation into the Russian interference, said.

The ISC issues the following statement:

The Intelligence and Security Committee questions whether government took its eye off the ball on Russia, and finds that [the government] underestimated the response required to the Russian threat and are still playing catch up:

Russian influence in the U.K. is the new normal. Successive governments have welcomed the oligarchs and their money with open arms, providing them with a means of recycling illicit finance through the London “laundromat,” and connections at the highest levels with access to U.K. companies and political figures.

This has led to a growth industry of “enablers” including lawyers, accountants, and estate agents who are – wittingly or unwittingly – de facto agents of the Russian state.

It clearly demonstrates the inherent tension between the government’s prosperity agenda and the need to protect national security. While we cannot now shut the stable door, greater powers and transparency are needed urgently.