U.K. Report on Russian Meddling Due Tuesday After Johnson Delays
Russia Meddling Report Delayed by Johnson to Be Released Tuesday
(Bloomberg) -- A long-awaited report on Russian interference in U.K. democracy will be published Tuesday after being blocked by Prime Minister Boris Johnson since last October.
There is “no nuclear bomb” that will shake the government in the report, by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, according to two people familiar with its contents. Many in the intelligence community regard the findings as already out of date.
Yet Johnson, who said last year he had read the document, still dragged his feet over its publication, only agreeing the nomination of new members for the committee needed to publish it earlier this month.
According to one version of events, the prime minister canceled publication last year because he didn’t want the committee’s then chairman, Dominic Grieve, a Remainer, to receive any publicity at a time when he was making the government’s life difficult over Brexit.
A general election followed in December, further holding up the process -- and giving Russian operatives another chance to interfere in British democracy, according to a government statement last week.
Johnson then delayed the nomination of the new committee again, increasing expectations among opposition politicians that the report contained revelations damaging to his administration.
The prime minister’s eventual efforts to reconvene the cross-party panel with a friendly chairman were embarrassingly thwarted last week, when members voted for Conservative MP Julian Lewis, instead of former Transport Secretary Chris Grayling. Lewis was promptly kicked out of the Party for standing against Johnson’s chosen candidate.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper said Tuesday that the 50-page report found Russia tried to disrupt the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum, but there was no direct evidence of involvement in the 2016 Brexit vote. The paper didn’t say where it got the information.
The report will be published at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday amid some last-minute panic from individuals who fear their names will feature in its pages.
“What could be in the report that nobody knows is donations from rich Russians to the Conservative Party,” Elisabeth Schimpfössl, author of “Rich Russians,” said in an interview.
Brexit backer Arron Banks also asked for the right-to-reply before publication if his name was in the report. The Telegraph said on Tuesday that he has been told he will not be criticized.
Even without any bombshell revelations, the report will put Russia once again in the U.K. political spotlight, days after Johnson’s government accused President Vladimir Putin’s government of trying to hack Covid-19 vaccine research, a charge Moscow denied.
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