![]() It features Russian émigrés, or the children of émigrés, who make large donations to domestic political parties. The Kremlin’s UK playbook follows a similar pattern seen elsewhere in Europe, he added. Today’s Kremlin, by contrast, has found that the political system in western democracies “really is the soft underbelly”, he said. Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who specialised in covering Russian corruption, said that during the cold war Soviet spies had a different focus, trying to steal well-protected intelligence and defence secrets. No-one in power wants to have that conversation,” he warned. There is a general awareness that Russian money has been pouring into the British political system. “There is a wilful blindness and determination to look the other way. Speaking to the Guardian last week, Simpson said Russian influence had wholly “compromised” the British political establishment. ![]() He found that the Kremlin had “a secret black budget of tens of millions of dollars”, earmarked for populist nationalist politicians who were opposed to the EU, the new book claims. It focused on France, Italy, the UK, Germany and Turkey. The book details how, before writing his dossier, Steele carried out a separate investigation into Russian intelligence activities in western Europe, codenamed Project Charlemagne. Moscow may have boosted the Brexit cause in a “comparable way” during the EU referendum, the book suggests. Mueller’s report did not find sufficient evidence that the Trump campaign “coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election-interference activities”. In April, the US special counsel Robert Mueller confirmed “sweeping and systematic” interference by Putin in the 2016 American presidential election. Steele was one of several expert witnesses who gave evidence to the committee.Ĭontrary to Johnson’s view, Crime in Progress claims Russia is seeking to destabilise European politics in the same way as it did in the US. The report considers the flow of Moscow-linked money into the Conservative party, it is understood. On the election trail this week, Johnson again insisted there was nothing unusual about his refusal to publish a report by parliament’s intelligence and security committee on Russian interference in UK democracy. Since becoming prime minister, Johnson has claimed there is no evidence Russia has ever meddled in British affairs. Johnson has robustly defended President Trump – including when the British ambassador in Washington, Sir Kim Darroch, was forced to resign following the leak of embarrassing diplomatic cables calling the White House “dysfunctional”. If MI6 had reason to believe that the incoming head of state of Britain’s top ally could, in fact, be compromised by Moscow, he asked himself, why would the government be willing to ‘kick it into the long grass’.”Īt this point Boris Johnson was foreign secretary. It adds: “This news irritated Steele while at the same time reinforcing his view that the reporting was strong. It seemed that the British government had made a political decision not to push the matter further”. The book claims: “ then surprised Steele by indicating that he was already aware that the British government had suspicions about links between Russia and members of the Trump campaign. Dearlove reportedly found the reporting “credible”.Ĭhristopher Steele’s dossier on Trump included claims that the Kremlin had obtained potentially blackmailable material from a Moscow hotel room. Steele “walked” Dearlove through the dossier’s explosive contents. In December 2016 Steele also met Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6 and Steele’s old boss, at the Garrick Club, Simpson and Fritsch write. Farr briefed Andrew Parker, then the head of MI5, and the “wider cabinet”, the book claims. Steele is quoted as saying Farr took the dossier “extremely seriously”. He briefed Sir Charles Farr, chairman of the joint intelligence committee, in the days after Trump’s unexpected victory, according to the new book. Steele’s conclusion was so alarming that he alerted the FBI and the British government. “It is perilous to underestimate them,” he says.Ĭiting his source network, Steele alleged in his dossier that Vladimir Putin’s regime had been cultivating Trump for at least five years and had collected enough compromising material to blackmail him – including from a Moscow hotel room. He describes Russians as “formidable adversaries” with a gift for deception. The report was commissioned by the pair and Steele is quoted extensively in their new book. The firm has been at the centre of furious controversy in the US since the publication of Christopher Steele’s dossier of allegations about Trump and Russia.
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