The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming! One if by hackers, two if by troll farms!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/12/britain-mueller-report-russian-media-uk-us

The British political system has become thoroughly compromised by Russian influence. It’s high time its institutions – including the media – woke up to that fact. In 2016, both the United Kingdom and the United States were the targets of Russian efforts to swing their votes. The aim was to weaken the alliances that had constrained Vladimir Putin’s ambitions, such as the European Union and Nato. The efforts in both countries had much in common. They were aided by a transatlantic cast of characters loosely organised around the Trump and Brexit campaigns. Many of them worked in concert and interacted with Russians close to the Kremlin. The outcome in both countries was also eerily similar. Both countries have been at war with themselves in the three years since, pulling them back from the international stage at a time when Putin has consolidated his position in Crimea, Ukraine, Syria and beyond. Our Washington-based research firm, Fusion GPS, conducted much of the early investigations into Russia’s support of the Trump campaign, aided by our colleague Christopher Steele, the former head of MI6’s Russia desk. While our initial focus was on Russian meddling in US politics, it has since become increasingly clear that Britain’s political system has also been deeply affected by Russian influence operations.

There the similarities end. For the past three years, the US has undergone a messy and boisterous effort to understand the extent of Russian influence on the 2016 election and beyond. There have been multiple congressional investigations with the power to compel documents and testimony from witnesses. There was a two-year investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

After mostly ignoring the issue during the election campaign itself, the US media have made up for lost time by digging deeply into Russian interference and the extent of the Trump campaign’s complicity. All of these investigations have been imperfect. The congressional investigations often devolved into farce as Trump’s political allies decided to investigate the investigators instead of Russia’s attack. The Mueller report’s damning findings were obfuscated by lawyerly language and twisted beyond recognition by Trump’s loyal attorney general. Mueller interpreted his mandate narrowly, leaving crucial questions unanswered…

• Glenn R Simpson and Peter Fritsch, both former journalists, are the founders of the research firm Fusion GPS. Their new book is Crime in Progress: The Secret History of the Trump-Russia Investigation