LONDON – The UK said on Thursday that “Russian actors” almost certainly attempted to interfere with its national elections last year.
The news came just as British, American and Canadian officials also accused Russian intelligence agencies of trying to steal the coronavirus vaccine investigation.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said last year’s meddling involved unidentified Russians trying to amplify leaked UK government documents related to trade denials between London and Washington.
In a written statement to the British Parliament, Raab said “there was no evidence of a broad-spectrum Russian campaign” before the December 12 vote last year, in which his Conservative Party won a landslide victory over the opposition Labor Party. .
But he added that “any attempt to interfere with our democratic processes is completely unacceptable.”
“Based on a thorough analysis, the government concluded that Russian actors almost certainly attempted to interfere in the 2019 general election by online amplifying illicitly acquired and leaked government documents,” he said.
The leaked documents were released by then-Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn at a pre-voting press conference.
Corbyn said they showed that Prime Minister Boris Johnson would put the country’s publicly funded National Health Service up for sale to secure a trade deal with President Donald Trump.
Before Corbyn quoted him, the 451-page document was posted on Reddit. But the website removed it after discovering that the post was created by a new user and that other anonymous accounts were “voting” or approving it.
Reddit launched an investigation because it believed the documents had been released as “part of a reported campaign that originated in Russia,” he said.
The British government had no comment at the time, only saying that its National Cyber Security Center was investigating the matter.
On Thursday, Raab said it was “an ongoing criminal investigation” and therefore it would be “inappropriate for us to say anything more at this time.”
He did not say whether the “actors” mentioned in his statement were related to the Russian government or President Vladimir Putin.
Russia denied that it interfered in the UK elections.
In a weekly briefing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called Raab’s statement “so vague and contradictory that it is almost impossible to understand.”
“On the one hand, there is no evidence. On the other hand, there are possible retaliatory measures,” he said. “These are mutually exclusive things. It looks like this is a new round based on the ‘highly likely’ tactic.”
Raab’s statement comes ahead of a delayed report on Russian interference in British democracy that will finally be released next week.
The issue of Russian interference was also looming over President Donald Trump’s time in office, and US intelligence officials discovered that the Kremlin worked to push his candidacy in 2016, something Russia has always denied.
Matthew Bodner contributed
