The Russia connectionRussia Report: Intelligence Expert Explains How U.K. Ignored Growing Threat
The new report on Russia from parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) is damning. The document certainly isn’t a page-turner, and nor does it provide all the answers some had expected. But contrary to most ISC reports, it’s striking and blunt, and the message couldn’t be clearer: Russia’s intelligence agencies pose a direct threat to the U.K., but successive governments and the U.K. agencies have taken their eye off the ball.
The new report on Russia from parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) is damning. The document certainly isn’t a page-turner, and nor does it provide all the answers some had expected. But contrary to most ISC reports, it’s striking and blunt, and the message couldn’t be clearer: Russia’s intelligence agencies pose a direct threat to the U.K., but successive governments and the U.K. agencies have taken their eye off the ball.
The long-awaited report follows an eight-month inquiry by the cross-party committee of MPs, collecting evidence from the UK’s intelligence agencies, senior civil servants and experts. It was published on July 21 after a considerable delay.
As with all ISC reports, not everything is made public. The annexes, containing the written and oral evidence the committee’s conclusions are based on, are redacted to protect sources. As the committee explains, Russia “will analyze whatever we put in the public” domain, potentially undermining U.K. intelligence capability.
The Russian foreign ministry called the report Russophobia, while the U.K. government rejected the committee’s calls for a public inquiry into whether or not Russia had interfered in the 2016 EU referendum.
But given months of speculation, what does the report actually tell us?
The Russia Threat – and Its Enablers
As expected, the ISC identifies Russia as a “significant threat … on a number of fronts – from espionage to interference in democratic process, and to serious crime”. The U.K.’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and National Cyber Security Centre told the committee they believe Russia has targeted critical national infrastructure and government departments. In cyberspace, Russia poses an “immediate and urgent threat”, they suggest, while the U.K. continues to develop its own offensive cyber capability to match that of Russia.
Surprisingly, despite claims of Russian meddling in the Brexit referendum, the ISC’s report says little about it. This is only because the committee was unable to get further information, as claims of Russian meddling were seen as a “hot potato” around government that few wanted to be left with.
Despite “credible open source commentary” of Russian involvement in the 2014 Scottish referendum, the ISC concluded that no organization held “primary responsibility” for protecting the U.K. democratic process from “hostile foreign interference”. In a stance branded “illogical” by MPs on the committee, U.K. security agencies expressed “extreme caution” two years later over intervening to protect U.K. democratic processes ahead of the Brexit referendum, fearing being drawn into political issues.
