Russia still poses an active threat to the UK, according to the Government’s Integrated Review, published in March. Vladimir Putin stated in 2019 that a government’s duty is to create a stable life for its citizens. He went on to say that liberal democracies have failed in providing this stability for people.
This was the reason he declared “Cold War 2.0” to fight liberalism back in 2007 when most representatives of complacent western democracies did not see the need to take him seriously. Researchers of political science agree that Putin perceives a united Europe and a strong USA as a threat to Russia. This is why he was in favour of Brexit in the hope it would help destabilise the EU. He believes that by interfering in domestic politics on other continents Russia gains international power.
In the last decade it has been proved that Russian agents have operated and poisoned people on British soil. The so-called “Russia Report”, published after almost a year’s delay last July, showed that Russia had meddled in political campaigns at least since the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 and up until the General Election of 2019.
The Vote Leave campaign broke electoral law. The source of dubious contributions from rich donors with Russian connections are still being investigated.
The Government claims that British citizens of Russian origin should not be discriminated against. They have the same right as all other Brits to make donations, which is of course true. What is conspicuous is that there are a few, very wealthy individuals with close ties to the Russian president who repeatedly feed money into the Conservative party, while UK officials are accused of turning a blind eye to the threat of foreign interference in British politics.
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