Russia denies meddling in other countries' election campaigns
Updated 21:31, 21-Jul-2020
CGTN
05:58

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Moscow has never interfered in election campaigns in other countries, responding to a report by the British Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee. 

"Russia has never interfered in electoral process in the United States, the United Kingdom or any other country. We don't do such things and we won't tolerate other countries' attempts to interfere in our political affairs," Peskov said, according to Russian news agency TASS. 

"So even if this report contains some baseless accusations, I bet that even if there are accusations, there will be no foundation to them, they will be groundless," he added. 

Peskov made the comments after the report was leaked ahead of its publication time by the Guido Fawkes website. 

File photo of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. /Reuters

File photo of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. /Reuters

The British Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee released the report later on Tuesday, accusing Russia of meddling in the 2014 Scottish referendum. 

"There has been credible open source commentary suggesting that Russia undertook influence campaigns in relation to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014," the report said. 

It also claimed that there were open source indications that Russia sought to influence the 2016 Brexit referendum but that the British government had not sought deep evidence of meddling. 

The report cast Russia as a hostile power which posed a significant threat to the UK and the West across a range of fronts, from espionage and cyber to election meddling and laundering dirty money. 

Russia had earlier denied allegations that it had meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election

(With input from Reuters)

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