Sputnik: This report on alleged Russian interference in British politics reportedly includes evidence from Christopher Steele. In your view, how viable can the evidence be in the first place?
Adriel Kasonta: We have to bear in mind that Mr Steele last successful 22 years in the MI-6 intelligence, set up his own private company called Orbis. And as far as I'm concerned, he also was making an alleged attempt to spark destructions when it comes to the United States elections related to the win of Mr Donald Trump, which was then turned over by Mr Robert Mueller, who opposed the alleged thesis made by Mr Steele. So, I don't see any value in Mr Steele’s attempts to somehow spark, again, the outrage against Russian alleged interference in UK politics. Because also we have to bear in mind that some sources leak out to BuzzFeed that the British intelligence found no evidence of Russian meddling in either the 2016 referendum vote or 2017 general elections. So I don't know what Mr Steele is trying to achieve.
Sputnik: But why we’re still seeing attempts to blame Russia for the election meddling?
Adriel Kasonta: I think that Russia became a very useful scapegoat in Western politics - to put the blame on Russia, regardless of the circumstances and regardless of the facts. So whenever we see that something is not going according to the plan of certain governments in power in the Western hemisphere - they are using Russia as a scapegoat. I think that the perception which has been made into the public - that Russia is the bad guy, that is the villain is somehow they are trying to capitulate on that particular fear within the society and then score certain goals. I don't know why they are still trying to do this, because time and time again, we are being offered alternative views and time and time again, those who are accusing Russia are left with nothing. So I don't know what Mr Steele is trying to do in this in this time.
Sputnik: How popular is the anti-Russian rhetoric now among British society? Aren’t people just tired of all this?
Adriel Kasonta: I think that - yes, we have to make a divergence between the British public, which is the British society and mainstream media and the government. I think the average person in the United Kingdom is not believing its own government, not only with regards to the accusations of Russia but also with regards to the handling of the Brexit. So I think that the British public is perfectly aware, they’re just trying to distract the public from the real problems within the society, like homelessness, poverty, the attempts to somehow scrub NHS, which is a great achievement of the health service here in the United Kingdom.
Sputnik: Dominic Grieve has also accused Boris Johnson of deciding to sit on this report until after the snap general election set for 12 December. What can you say about the timing of all this? Why are we witnessing attempts to further heat up the situation and accuse PM of wrongdoing?
Adriel Kasonta: From my perspective, obviously I’m not in the government - I can't tell. But as an analysis, I can say that Mr Grieve trying somehow put a pressure on Mr Boris Johnson, maybe because of the fact that certain powers that are displeased with the fact that the Brexit is going on, then they try to smash the prime minister in this country and somehow take him off from the seat of their prime minister. That might be the one conclusion. The other conclusion, which is according to the British law, is that normally, according to the Downing Street, the ten working days are given to this kind of reports from the Intelligence and Security Committee to ensure that contains classified materials to be cleared out. But according to the number 10 - which disputed this fact, they are saying that the process typically takes six weeks.
So, as we know, Monday and Tuesday, where possible dates to the document to appear before the parliament dissolves in November. The time is too short to discuss and debate such an important and very grievous accusations. It seems that the British politics appeared to be like a fast food, everything is going fast without any evidence and without any proper research, because before we make such a tremendous accusations, we need to have certain time to investigate the report to see whether the people who are involved in the first place in this report, as Mr Steele, who moved from civil service to private sector and is not involved in the politics per say so, is a private actor. So, I would be very cautious by taking his research and his accusations for granted, because it has to be a proper investigation that has to be put in place and proper procedures and time has to be given to us to assess the report before the government will move on.
