This week, a malign foreign actor invaded the British media, spreading disinformation and seeking to meddle in the general election. A malevolent force exploiting our democracy to advance its own interests. That’s right, Hillary Clinton has been in London. She has another book to promote, The Book of Gutsy Women, and she’s again talking about male authoritarian-ism, why Britain needs to be ‘forward-looking’ (i.e. not leave the European Union), and the menace of Russia. It doesn’t take an intelligence expert to decode her message: ‘I didn’t win in 2016 and I’m still livid.’
Clinton says she is ‘dumbfounded’ that the British government has decided not to publish a parliamentary report on Russian meddling in UK politics until after 12 December. ‘Every person who votes in this country deserves to see that report before your election happens,’ she says. ‘I find it inexplicable… and shameful.’ She may have a point there: some funny politics are being played about the report’s publication. But it’s hard to take her seriously on the subject because poor Hillary has succumbed to Russia Derangement Syndrome: a malady that means you see the hand of Moscow everywhere.
She fully believes that Vladimir Putin played a decisive role in her losing to Donald Trump. Last month, she called the Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard a ‘Russian asset’. She offered not a shred of evidence to back up the claim, but she does have evident animus. Back in 2016, Gabbard supported Bernie Sanders above Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Gabbard must be a Putin plant, then.
That’s the trouble with a lot of the talk about Russia. It boils down to highly political people saying: if you are against us, you must either be for Moscow or one of those poorly educated digital troglodytes manipulated by Vlad’s social-media trolls. The Russia-did-Brexit idea has been floating around since at least June 2016. As conspiracy theories tend to do, it intertwines neatly with the other big one: that Russia hacked the American presidential election for Donald Trump. Both theories involve pro–Kremlin online bots, ‘concerted’ dis-information campaigns, and allegations of corruption. Trump had an interest in building a tower in Moscow; the Tories did fund-raising events with Russian oligarchs. Kompromat! What more do you need?
How about proof that Russian activity changed the minds of voters? There have been plenty of governmental and journalistic enquiries searching for such evidence. Embarrassingly little has been found. Yes, pro–Brexit or pro-Trump messaging emanated from the Internet Research Agency, that notorious troll factory in St Petersburg. It might be a good idea to try to stop that happening again. But does it explain Brexit? Or Trump? No.
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