UK Defence Forum

"Russian operatives were increasingly recruiting “unwitting Americans” to write articles and post online" in the run-up to the US election. Reuters has the details https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-ele ... SKBN26M5OP

This part in it is delicious:
" main page carries a warning to its readers: “Don’t get yourself fooled.”

The website’s own name, however, is a pun on a Russian expletive meaning to deceive or “screw over.” ["]

And back to this side of the Pond; BBC reports that we might see a Round 2
"In July, a report by Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) said the UK government had not looked for evidence of whether Russia had interfered in the 2016 EU referendum."

"Lord Ricketts, who was national security adviser from 2010 to 2012, is supporting the group [pressing for a proper look, by opening legal proceedings].

In a statement, he said: "Given the importance of knowing the extent of past Russian interference in assessing the risk for future elections, I do not understand why the government would choose not to investigate."["]
... every nutty conspiracy theory and so on

No idea whether the Russians, Koreans or Chinese were on the move https://www.reuters.com/video/watch/us- ... n=8gwsyvzx
but paying scores of people to sit on the internet, to feed in falsehoods and/or to try to recalibrate discussions is starting to look like old hat

Years before the poisoning of the Skripals, a DefSEc talked about the influence of 'sady publishing houses' on our soil.

More recently, Wired had an article https://www.wired.co.uk/article/russia- ... lden-visas
"despite several changes in the years following the poisoning, the Intelligence and Security Committee's report into Russian activity in the UK has once again recommended the scheme’s overhaul. It claims that the Tier 1 scheme, and similar previous schemes stretching back to the early 90s, turned London into a “laundromat” for corrupt foreign money[, and] cemented Russian influence in the UK’s business and social scene as the “new normal”. It is likely, the report states, that such a move would at this point only constitute “damage limitation”.

The golden visa programme was introduced in 2008, along with other reforms to the immigration system, to simplify routes to residency and citizenship in the UK. At the time, the stated aim of this programme was to “boost the UK's economy by attracting and retaining the ‘brightest and best’ ["]
... so if you steal a lot of money, you pass the test? Underlining added. And keeping the report back for a half a year or more considerably dampened the interest in what it actually said (and recommended)

Defence -industrial complex may not have been good for everyone; but at the top of that not-good-for you queue were the Ruskies.

Now that we have the data - industrial complex emerging, they are not throwing a spanner in the works, but have - very much - a spanner working right in there, as per