THE Scottish Tories have called for the SNP to launch an “inquiry into Russia’s indyref interference” - despite the Tory government in London steadfastly refusing to run a probe into Kremlin influence in the Brexit vote.
In a damning report released on Tuesday morning, the Intelligence and Security Committee criticised successive UK governments for failing to look for Russian interference during 2016’s EU referendum.
The MPs on the committee said Tory ministers had "actively avoided" investigating possible Russian interference in the EU referendum
The report said Russian influence in the UK was now "the new normal", and said the Tories governments had welcomed oligarchs and de facto agents from Russian with "open arms".
On Scotland, the report said there had been “credible open source commentary suggesting Russia undertook influence campaigns in relation to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014.”
Much of the rest of the paragraph is redacted though the footnotes refer to a blog post by Ben Nimmo, a senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, which detailed how “Pro-Russian internet trolls” claimed that the referendum vote was rigged in the wake of the result.
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said that merited a full inquiry.
He said:“This report suggests the SNP has questions to answer in relation to Russian interference.
“It has to explain what it knew about this issue and when.
“Given how Scotland and the independence referendum is at the centre of these allegations, it’s essential the Scottish Government orders an inquiry on the matter.
“People will be very suspicious that the Yes campaign’s most dominant figure ended up on the Russian payroll after losing the referendum.
“And over many years SNP figures have been more than happy to indulge questionable Russian media operations.
“It’s clear much work is to be done by both the Scottish and UK governments to ensure future interference is stamped out.”
Labour’s Ian Murray also called for a probe, He said:“The findings in this report are deeply alarming and show that Russian interference in our democratic votes started at the time of the independence referendum.
“It’s not surprising that Putin’s regime will seek to capitalise on anything which weakens the UK.
“The UK Government must now take steps to ensure we protect our democracy, and the Scottish Government must be transparent about what it knew and what measures it will take to protect the integrity of next year’s Holyrood election. We need a full inquiry in Scotland to ensure our democracy isn’t compromised by outside state actors.
“This is yet another reason why next year's contest must be about jobs and our NHS, not the constitution."
Asked about the calls during the Scottish Government's daily coronavirus briefing, the First Minister said: "Intelligence and Security is a reserved matter, and therefore, I'm not entirely sure how anybody thinks it would be possible for me to launch the kind of inquiry that the Intelligence and Security Committee is calling for."
She added: "This is a report that has been kept hidden from the public for months, now that it's out there I think the questions that should be asked are for the UK government who are the government responsible for the intelligence and security matters."
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