Andy Burnham has said Russia did interfere with the Brexit referendum and warned that similar activities were taking place in France and Germany.
The prime minister told The Rest is Politics podcast that upon arriving in No 10, he had asked about possible Russian interference in the 2016 vote, adding: “I’ve had the clear answer that, yes, there was.”
“I think we’ve been too much on the back foot on that actually and we haven’t informed people sufficiently about the extent to which people are seeking to disrupt the political process from overseas,” he added.
Oh, I have no doubt in my mind that Russia put their thumb on the balance to try and move things towards Brexit - geostrategically it makes sense for them to do so.
Most definitely America did the same - again it makes sense for the nation were many politicians saw the EU as an adversary and who lost tons of influence in Europe when the countries pooled together into forming the EU (especially amongst small countries, which used to be a kicking ball for great powers).
Quite possibly China did too - weakening an adversary Trade coalition makes sense for them.
It’s just that their ability to influence Britain and Britons is minuscule compare to the influence of Britain’s own elites, especially the ones who own newspapers that have been spouting rabid far-right bullshit for decades.
Brexit was build in Britain layer by layer over the last 3 decades or so, it wasn’t just cast into being in an otherwise perfect country by nasty Russian magicians.
The point I’m making is that in this Russia is an excuse to, as usual, move people’s attention away from far more powerful people in Britain and from the politicians who willingly act as their minions.
Further, having seen Brexit first hand as an immigrant in Britain, the “blame Russia” from the politicians given the huge amounts of Jingoism in Britain (much more than other European countries I lived in) stinks with the same smell as the “blame the EU” so beloved by politicians in both New Labour and the Tory Party before Brexit and shares the same ideological foundations as “blame immigrants” - blame foreigners so that the 100% British people that did most of it suffer no repercussions for their actions.