Boris Johnson warns Russia is “up to all sorts of dirty tricks” and could undermine the UK’s democratic process
Boris Johnson has warned Russia is "up to all sorts of dirty tricks" following an intelligence report that told political parties to protect themselves against potential cyber attacks.
The foreign secretary said there's "plenty of evidence" Vladimir Putin's government is capable of undermining Britain's democratic process, and he accused the Kremlin of bringing down French TV stations, hacking into the US' Democratic National Convention and even the attempted assassination of Montenegro's Prime Minister.
"There is very little doubt that the Russians are behind these things," he said.
Johnson was speaking in an interview with ITV's Robert Peston when he said:
First of all, we have no evidence that the Russians are actually involved in trying to undermine our democratic processes at the moment.
But what we do have is plenty of evidence that the Russians are capable of doing that. And there is no doubt that they’ve been up to all sorts of dirty tricks.
Johnson will travel to Moscow to speak with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in the coming weeks.
A spokesperson said the visit is consistent with the UK's "engage but beware" approach towards Russia and that Britain will engage with Russia "where it is in our national interest to do so".