According to a former British MI6 spy, Russia He was involved in recent far-right riots in the UK. The former head of the Russian bureau told the British agency that “clear” Russian influence had been identified and that security services were looking for the instigators.
Former British spy’s warning
Christopher Steele, the former spy who compiled a well-known dossier on Donald Trump’s ties to Russia, said security officials would be “watching very carefully” those who incited anti-immigration riots in the past two weeks.
Following a violent attack on a children’s dance class in Southport last month, rioters attacked mosques, police officers and a hotel in Rotherham housing asylum seekers. The unrest was fuelled by far-right activists online who falsely attributed the attack to a Muslim migrant.
In an interview with Radio Times, Steele commented on the riots: “I think it’s clear that there was some Russian interference. I think the degree to which that happened and the effectiveness is still not in doubt. “I mean, when you look at the original disinformation surrounding the Southport murders, it appears to have come from a website linked to Russia.”
The origin of the false claim about the perpetrator of the Southport stabbing appears to be a media outlet called Channel3 Now, which was designed to look like a traditional American news channel, combining American and British news material, and was possibly generated by artificial intelligence.
Russian intervention in the riots
Steele also said that security officials “will be looking at things like their travel movements, who they were in contact with, cash transfers, etc., because that may or may not reveal, as the case may be, a pattern of behavior that could lead to some conclusions about the extent of Russian involvement in this situation.”
The prime minister’s official spokesman said last week that ministers were looking into “the involvement of government agencies” in the unrest.
“We’ve clearly seen a lot of activity online, a lot of which may be amplified, or involving state actors, which is amplifying some of the misinformation and disinformation that we’ve seen,” the spokesperson said. “And that’s something the NCA says [Agencia Nacional contra el Crimen] and DSIT [Departamento de Ciencia, Innovación y Tecnología] “They are analyzing what we have seen online.”
Furthermore, Downing Street 10 noted that “some of the misinformation we have seen online has been amplified by known bot activity, which, I would say, could be linked to state-backed activity.”
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