UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has approved the release of a controversial report into alleged Russian interference in British politics, the Independent reports.
The 50-page report by Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) analyses Russia's activities, including possible interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum, when 52 percent of Britons voted to leave the EU.
But the commission was dissolved due to last Thursday's parliamentary elections and the report cannot be released until it is re-evaluated, which could take several weeks. The members of the commission are chosen by the prime minister and the leader of the opposition from the Liberals, who are then voted on by Parliament.
The committee launched its investigation in November 2017 and sent its report to the prime minister in mid-October this year, said the body's former chairman, Dominic Grieve.
In early November, the government was criticized for refusing to publish the report before the December 12 elections, citing national security interests.
However, a spokesman for Boris Johnson said today that publishing the report "would not harm the organisations that protect our national security".
The ISC investigation was in response to concerns about Russian interference in the 2016 US election and the influence of disinformation campaigns by Russia.
Also mentioned is the poisoning of former Russian agent Sergei Skripal in the British city of Salisbury, which London attributes to Moscow. Russia has denied any involvement, but the case has led to a wave of expulsions of diplomats from London and its allies from Moscow.
Johnson has been criticised for blocking the Intelligence and Security Committee report ahead of the general election, and the head of that committee, Dominic Griev, called the prime minister's decision "surprising".
“If he did it now, he could have done it before the election was called,” Griev told the Independent.
The British newspaper notes that this report cannot be published before the appointment of a new Intelligence and Security Committee and is not expected to be released before January.
