ON Monday night Downing Street briefed journalists that the much-delayed report into Russian interference would show that the Kremlin had interfered in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.
But that wasn’t quite what in yesterday’s document. Rather it said, as has been reported for some time, that Russian actors tried to cast doubt on the result after the vote.
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.
Both the Tories and Labour have called for a public probe.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she has “no objection” to an inquiry being launched into Russian interference in the Scottish independence referendum.
READ MORE: Scottish Tories' indyref probe call would make 'Kremlin cringe'
Speaking at the Scottish Government’s coronavirus briefing yesterday, she said governments should not be “complacent” about the possibility of interference in democratic processes. The UK Government response to such warnings could be viewed as “negligence”, she said.
She added: “If there’s to be an inquiry into that – and I would have no objections, to the contrary – it is for the UK Government to do.”
The First Minister said she hopes the report will lead to a “much more rigorous approach” by the UK Government in dealing with interference.
During a press conference after the publication of the report, SNP MP and ISC member Stewart Hosie said another Westminster committee recommended the UK Government look into interference in 2014.
“It wasn’t the case the Government weren’t told that they should be looking at this,” he said.
“The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee called on the Government to launch an investigation into foreign influence, disinformation funding, voter manipulation and the sharing of data in relation to the Scottish independence referendum.
READ MORE: Russia report: What it says about Scotland's independence referendum
“So the Government were told by a Select Committee of the House to undertake precisely the work that would have identified the scale and scope of this threat.”
Fellow ISC member Kevan Jones said: “All the evidence was there from the Scottish referendum.
“Short of a large van outside Downing Street with a billboard on it saying ‘this is what was going on’ what more did the Government need?
“It does raise the question why the decision was taken not to look at the referendum.”
The 2014 referendum is mentioned in just one passage of the report and in a further two footnotes.
Sturgeon said: “I don’t think you can draw any conclusions from the three lines or thereabouts that the report has on the Scottish independence referendum.”
The First Minister said her values, along with those of the SNP and the independence movement “could not be further removed from the values that Vladimir Putin and the Russian regime stand for”.
An SNP spokesman said the Scottish Tory calls for an inquiry were so “shameless” they’d “make the Kremlin cringe”.
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