London Russia reportedly tried to influence the Scottish independence referendum in 2014. This derives from a report by the British Secret Service Committee on Russian interference in politics and elections, as reported by the British newspaper “The Telegraph” on Tuesday.
“It was the first post-Soviet intervention in a democratic election in the West,” the newspaper wrote quoting the long-awaited report. The Scots then voted 55 percent against secession from the United Kingdom.
There was apparently no attempt to manipulate the Brexit referendum.
In the 2016 Brexit referendum, however, no attempts at manipulation were made. At that time, only 52 percent voted to secede from the European Union.
The report was to be published on Tuesday – with a delay of months. Prime Minister Boris Johnson denied release before the general election. It sparked speculation in Britain that the 50-page report was likely to be ineffective for ruling conservatives.
According to a report in the “Sunday Times” last year, the report examined, among other things, the relations of several large Russian donors from the British Conservatives to the Russian domestic secret service FSB.