The Russia report.

[MrSki]

So for nine months this report has been put on hold. It is to be published at 10.30am tomorrow 21/7/20. Do you think it will actually reveal anything or have more lines of redaction than actual print.
Are you expecting a dead cat story overnight? If not I expect it won't reveal too much but Arron Banks wanted advanced viewing in case it related to a couple of on going court cases he has outstanding.

Will the BBC cover it at all? Personally I am expecting it to be a bit of a damp squib but am hoping it isn't. If it is really juicy & covers Cummings three years in Moscow & Johnson's Banga parties in Italy where he ditched his security to attend then bring it on. I know a pessimist is never disappointed & I am not hopeful.
If it is a bit more explosive will the press really actually dig deeper?

I wait for tomorrow.

 

[platinumsage]

Anything shocking would have leaked by now surely.

 

[cupid_stunt]

The Telegraph seems to have a leaked copy, or a 'source' as to what's in it.

Russia tried to “influence” the result of the Scottish Independence Referendum but not the Brexit vote, a long-awaited report into Moscow’s alleged meddling in British politics will reveal on Tuesday.

Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee will describe the Kremlin’s attempt to divide the United Kingdom in 2014 as “the first post-Soviet interference in a Western democratic election”, The Telegraph has learnt.

However, the report concludes that there is no direct evidence of Russian influence in the 2016 Brexit referendum.

It will conclude that there is “credible open-source commentary that Russia undertook to influence the campaign on Scottish independence”, describing it as “the first post-Soviet interference in a Western democratic election”.

The report, which was completed last December but had been delayed by Boris Johnson’s failure to appoint new members of the ISC after the election, will turn attention on Nicola Sturgeon’s ongoing campaign for Scottish independence. Her predecessor Alex Salmond led the Scottish National Party into the 2014 referendum, and three years later launched his own weekly television show on the state-sponsored RT (Russia Today) channel.

Despite months of speculation about the report’s findings on the Brexit referendum, it is expected to conclude that there is no tangible evidence of Russia trying to influence the Brexit referendum.

A millionaire backer of one of the biggest pro-Brexit campaigns at the EU 2016 referendum has been told he will not face any criticism. Arron Banks, the biggest funder of the Leave.EU campaign, has been told he "is not the subject of criticism in the 'Russia' report to be laid before Parliament this week".

Left-wing newspapers had raised questions about alleged meetings between Mr Banks and Russian embassy officials, and Mr Banks's lawyers wrote to Julian Lewis, the committee's new chairman, last week demanding to know if their client, who was cleared of any criminality by the National Crime Agency over £8 million in EU referendum campaign funding, was named in the report.

The committee's secretariat replied on Monday saying: "We can confirm that Mr Banks is not the subject of criticism in the 'Russia' report to be laid before Parliament this week."

Mr Banks said on Monday night: "I am not surprised. I have been exonerated by the NCA of all the crazy conspiracy theories. It is time to move on."

The ISC report is also understood to blame successive governments for being far too lenient towards Moscow even after it became clear Putin had become increasingly hostile and dangerous.

One source said: “The report will say that the desire by successive governments to tackle terrorism and a desire to have favourable relations with a better-behaving post-Soviet Russia failed to reflect that things changed dramatically under Putin. That criticism will be made forcefully.

A separate source connected to the report said any sensitive information that might include ongoing intelligence investigations into Russian meddling was redacted or else excluded for reasons of national security.

Russia report: Kremlin 'tried to meddle in Scottish independence vote' - but no evidence that it targeted Brexit

Long-awaited report will lay bare Russia's efforts to interfere in UK elections

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[rubbershoes]

The Telegraph seems to have a leaked copy, or a 'source' as to what's in it.

Russia report: Kremlin 'tried to meddle in Scottish independence vote' - but no evidence that it targeted Brexit

Long-awaited report will lay bare Russia's efforts to interfere in UK elections

www.telegraph.co.uk

I won't be getting my analysis of the report from the telegraph

 

[Badgers]

Had this email yesterday:

You recently signed the petition “Publish the Russia report”:
Petition: Publish the Russia report

The newly-established Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has confirmed it will publish the report of its predecessor Committee into alleged Russian interference in UK elections on Tuesday 21 July.

You can read the report here from 10.30am on 21 July: Committee Publications - The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament.

Thanks,
The Petitions team
UK Government and Parliament

I fear a damp squib but hope that some good/justice/change comes out of this #dreamer

 

[SpookyFrank]

The fact of them refusing to release it all this time is more dodgy than anything that's likely to be in it.

 

[Ted Striker]

So, announcing pay rises for covid workers was the best they could do for a distraction (top story on bbc).

 

[DexterTCN]

The Telegraph seems to have a leaked copy, or a 'source' as to what's in it.

Russia report: Kremlin 'tried to meddle in Scottish independence vote' - but no evidence that it targeted Brexit

Long-awaited report will lay bare Russia's efforts to interfere in UK elections

www.telegraph.co.uk

Really?

The way I remember it is different.

Cameron's plea to Putin: help me stop Salmond

Itar-Tass, citing a source in the Conservative Prime Minister's office, said Britain was "extremely interested" in referendum support from…

www.heraldscotland.com

 

[Pickman's model]

Anything shocking would have leaked by now surely.

Like it did with the Scott report or MacPherson

 

[Pickman's model]

So for nine months this report has been put on hold. It is to be published at 10.30am tomorrow 21/7/20. Do you think it will actually reveal anything or have more lines of redaction than actual print.
Are you expecting a dead cat story overnight? If not I expect it won't reveal too much but Arron Banks wanted advanced viewing in case it related to a couple of on going court cases he has outstanding.

Will the BBC cover it at all? Personally I am expecting it to be a bit of a damp squib but am hoping it isn't. If it is really juicy & covers Cummings three years in Moscow & Johnson's Banga parties in Italy where he ditched his security to attend then bring it on. I know a pessimist is never disappointed & I am not hopeful.
If it is a bit more explosive will the press really actually dig deeper?

I wait for tomorrow.

How do banga parties differ from bunga bunga ones?

 

[cupid_stunt]

Really?

The way I remember it is different.

Cameron's plea to Putin: help me stop Salmond

Itar-Tass, citing a source in the Conservative Prime Minister's office, said Britain was "extremely interested" in referendum support from…

www.heraldscotland.com

You're quoting a report based on information released by a Russian state 'news agency', AKA Putin's mouthpiece, which could easily have been done to undermine the UK government, as part of a plan to influence the referendum result.

Even Salmond was cautious enough to say, "If this is accurate...", and a joint convener of the Scottish Greens, said: "If accurate...", whereas you seem to have swallowed it. hook line and sinker.

 

[CNT36]

One source said: “The report will say that the desire by successive governments to tackle terrorism and a desire to have favourable relations with a better-behaving post-Soviet Russia failed to reflect that things changed dramatically under Putin. That criticism will be made forcefully

Well that made me queasy.

 

[DexterTCN]

You're quoting a report based on information released by a Russian state 'news agency', AKA Putin's mouthpiece, which could easily have been done to undermine the UK government, as part of a plan to influence the referendum result.

Even Salmond was cautious enough to say, "If this is accurate...", and a joint convener of the Scottish Greens, said: "If accurate...", whereas you seem to have swallowed it. hook line and sinker.

You're quoting a right-wing tory supporting english rag, you think there's a difference?

Support for indy goes way past 50% and suddenly we're russian stooges? Fuck off, fantasist.

Anyway...be clear, I wouldn't give a fuck anyway. Anything that helps us get away from the exceptionalist, isolationist, racist pricks who run the UK is fine by me. No Russian ever called me a jock cunt.

 

[rubbershoes]

Putin is likely to be in favour of any division here whether that's Scottish independence or brexit.

Just because Putin's for something, doesn't make it a bad idea. Both must be judged on their own merits.

 

[cupid_stunt]

You're quoting a right-wing tory supporting english rag, you think there's a difference?

That was the only rag claiming to have some insight into the report, this morning. I've no problem with you linking to the Herald, but FFS at least read what they have published, which was information from a Russian state 'news agency'.

Support for indy goes way past 50% and suddenly we're russian stooges? Fuck off, fantasist.

Err, the report was drawn up before that, and is produced by the cross-party Intelligence and Security Committee, which includes SNP representation.

 

[Fez909]

Here you go: 20200721_HC632_CCS001_CCS1019402408-001_ISC_Russia_Report_Web_Accessible.pdf

 

[maomao]

No Russian ever called me a jock cunt.

They'd just call you a thick cunt like the rest of us.

 

[Spandex]

So, The Telegraph goes with: the report concludes that there is no direct evidence of Russian influence in the 2016 Brexit referendum.

While the BBC goes with: The UK government has "actively avoided" looking for evidence that Russia interfered during the Brexit referendum

And the Guardian has: Committee members said they could not definitively conclude whether the Kremlin had or had not successfully interfered in the Brexit vote because no effort had been made to find out.

I think The Telegraph are putting a favourable spin on things there for their friends in the Government.

 

[Jeremiah18.17]

This bit from the Graun:
No single organisation within government was prepared to take on the “hot potato” of “defending the UK’s democratic processes” the committee concluded. Britain’s spy agencies saw their job as providing “secret intelligence as context” for ministers.

Instead the job of maintaining the integrity of British democracy nominally fell to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, “is largely confined to the broad HMG policy regarding the use of disinformation”.

Faced with Russian attempts to try to disrupt and influence British elections, the committee concluded that “It has been surprisingly difficult to establish who has responsibility for what.”

 

[Pickman's model]

To clear up any confusion and in response to several pms if people want to count the Russia report as a book for the purposes of the reading challenge thread, they can

 

[maomao]

So the finding of the report into Russian interference is that there hasn't been a proper investigation into Russian interference? I thought this was the investigation. Am I missing something?

 

[MrSki]

The government had actively avoided looking for interference. The committee does not instruct the security services to investigate but the government does. The report is based on what intelligence services present to them.

 

[salem]

So what now? Is this the springboard to an actual investigation or do we just accept that it's "the new normal"?

 

[editor]

Russia report: UK 'badly underestimated' threat, says committee

Russian influence in the UK is now "the new normal", according to a parliamentary committee.

www.bbc.co.uk

Out-fucking-rageous.

 

[NoXion]

It reads like homework that's been rushed to the finish and handed in at the last minute.

 

[Spandex]

Reminds me of the 2004 Butler Review into Intelligence on WMDs, which found that: 1. the Government didn't keep any records of their meetings; and 2. there was no record of the government doing anything wrong.

 

[JimW]

"Russia is a land of contrasts..."

 

[marty21]

Twitter is awash with brexit folk basically saying ' See ! no evidence' ignoring the fact that the government appears to have not looked for any at the time.

 

[brogdale]

Twitter is awash with brexit folk.

 

[not-bono-ever]

im not convinced that this PM is that good really, despite all the praise he gets on here.