Why Boris Johnson doesn’t want to release the Russian influence report

Published



Prime Minister Boris Johnson should release the secret report on Russian influence operations that was recently produced in Britain. Authored by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, the report was submitted to No. 10 Downing St. on Oct. 17.

But since then, the report has been shelved. Johnson says it is undergoing a six-week review process and will be published after the Dec. 12 election. But that doesn’t add up. In a statement on Tuesday, the Intelligence Committee’s Conservative chairman, Dominic Grieve, explained that he is “extremely disappointed” and “baffled” as to why Johnson has delayed the report’s release. Grieve observed that only a 10-day delay was expected and that the U.K. intelligence community has approved the report’s publication (which is normal for committee referrals to Downing Street).

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