Britain needs its own Mueller report on Russian ‘interference’

The British political system has become thoroughly compromised by Russian influence. It’s high time its institutions – including the media – woke up to that fact. In 2016, both the United Kingdom and the United States were the targets of Russian efforts to swing their votes. The aim was to weaken the alliances that had constrained Vladimir Putin’s ambitions, such as the European Union and Nato.

The efforts in both countries had much in common. They were aided by a transatlantic cast of characters loosely organised around the Trump and Brexit campaigns. Many of them worked in concert and interacted with Russians close to the Kremlin. The outcome in both countries was also eerily similar. Both countries have been at war with themselves in the three years since, pulling them back from the international stage at a time when Putin has consolidated his position in Crimea, Ukraine, Syria and beyond.

Our Washington-based research firm, Fusion GPS, conducted much of the early investigations into Russia’s support of the Trump campaign, aided by our colleague Christopher Steele, the former head of MI6’s Russia desk. While our initial focus was on Russian meddling in US politics, it has since become increasingly clear that Britain’s political system has also been deeply affected by Russian influence operations.

There the similarities end. For the past three years, the US has undergone a messy and boisterous effort to understand the extent of Russian influence on the 2016 election and beyond. There have been multiple congressional investigations with the power to compel documents and testimony from witnesses. There was a two-year investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

After mostly ignoring the issue during the election campaign itself, the US media have made up for lost time by digging deeply into Russian interference and the extent of the Trump campaign’s complicity.

All of these investigations have been imperfect. The congressional investigations often devolved into farce as Trump’s political allies decided to investigate the investigators instead of Russia’s attack. The Mueller report’s damning findings were obfuscated by lawyerly language and twisted beyond recognition by Trump’s loyal attorney general. Mueller interpreted his mandate narrowly, leaving crucial questions unanswered.

But the process did produce an avalanche of documents and testimony, a great deal of it public, that has aided understanding of what occurred. That makes it harder for Russia to reprise its attack. The Mueller report’s main finding – that Russia had engaged in a “sweeping and systematic” campaign to elect Trump – was unambiguous and thoroughly documented. So too was Mueller’s clarion call for Americans of all political persuasions to wake up to the continuing threat of Russian interference in its politics.

In Britain, the official response has consisted largely of denial. Consumed by bitter divisions over Brexit and public spending, it took years longer than it should have for parliament to conduct an investigation of Russian penetration of British politics. Even now, the government has suppressed its findings until after the election – an unconscionable decision given the importance to the democratic system itself.

Many US institutions have shown more backbone and independence than their UK counterparts. Some of those who served in the Trump administration, such as the British-born Fiona Hill and Lt Col Alexander Vindman, have been willing to stand up in public and tell the truth, despite intimidation from the president and his allies. In the UK, the courageous whistleblowers needed to expose Russian influence have yet to emerge.

The UK media have started prying into these issues and important work has been conducted shedding light on the actions of Russian-backed groups such as the Conservative Friends of Russia. But, in general, news organisations have been slow off the mark, stymied by dwindling resources and overloaded by the hurricane of Brexit news. Britain’s onerous libel laws and its culture of official secrecy have only made matters worse.

In both the US and the UK, there’s an understandable tendency by those helped by Russian efforts to minimise the perception of this influence. Conservative-leaning media in both countries see little advantage in uncovering Russian meddling that would appear to undercut their own political preferences. In the US, some of Trump’s defenders have even resorted to parroting Russian propaganda that falsely shifts the blame for their interference to rivals in Ukraine.

The British official instinct to handle these unpleasant matters in private has not served it well. The public cannot have confidence that the political establishment will deal with these thorny issues any better than it has with Brexit.

In short, Britain needs its own Mueller report: a full, independent and public accounting of Russian efforts to interfere in its politics. Few people will look forward to this process in a country already exhausted from fighting over Brexit. But it’s essential to halt Russia’s attack on Britain’s democracy and restore confidence in its politics.

Putin will not be easily deterred. Russia’s economy is smaller than Italy’s, with little prospect of growth so long as it suffers under his kleptocracy. The only option to become relatively stronger, Putin believes, is to divide and weaken his adversaries. However, Putin is not the Wizard of Oz. He cannot invent underlying political currents; he can only intensify them.

This is the biggest danger we face: that we cannot escape our partisanship long enough to face down our common enemy. Putin is not a Conservative; nor is he a Republican. The next time he interferes it could easily be in favour of their political opponents. Britain’s institutions must wake up to the Russian threat before Putin seriously damages the country’s centuries-old democracy.

• Glenn R Simpson and Peter Fritsch, both former journalists, are the founders of the research firm Fusion GPS. Their new book is Crime in Progress: The Secret History of the Trump-Russia Investigation