Huge surge in Russian propaganda against Brits posted from troll bot accounts after Syria strikes
Boris Johnson warns about Kremlin 'disinformation' in retaliation for bombing their ally Assad - and said Britain would take ‘every possible precaution’ to guard against it
A HUGE surge in Russian propaganda attacking Britain and America has been pushed out on social media since the air strikes in Syria.
A host of bot accounts have been trolling the West as the Kremlin ramps up its campaign of 'disinformation' after the bombing of their ally Bahsar al-Assad.
Boris Johnson said the UK has to "take every possible precaution" to prepare for possible revenge cyber-attacks on targets like the NHS and electrical facilities.
The Foreign Secretary told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that Russia "gives us every possible signal and evidence that we have to beware" after repeated threats of retaliation.
Asked if he was worried about attempts to take down key infrastructure like the National Grid, he said: "When you look at what Russia has done, not just in this country in Salisbury but the attacks on TV stations, on the democratic processes, on the critical national infrastructure, of course we have to be very, very cautious indeed."
And the is reporting that Whitehall sources confirmed a 20-fold increase in fake news being pumped out since the joint raids on chemical weapons facilities on Saturday morning.
US officials said there had been a surge in Russian "troll" accounts promoting false claims about the missile attacks, including that 70 per cent of the missiles had been shot down.
Pentagon spokesman Dana White said: "The Russian disinformation campaign has already begun. There has been a 2,000 per cent increase in Russian trolls in the last 24 hours."
Last week, Ciaran Martin, director of the cyber security centre, warned Russia had already repeatedly “hit” vital systems such as hospitals, banks and transport.
He said their attacks on computer networks were “part of a wider campaign to destabilise” the UK.
Anger at British clergyman in fawning visit to Syria amid air strikes
A GROUP of church leaders have been criticised for meeting with Syrian government officials after the UK took part in air strikes in retaliation for chemical attacks on civilians..
The group of peers and clergymen included the columnist and priest Giles Fraser, as well as Michael Langrish, the former bishop of Exeter.
The delegation, which had been planned for months, arrived on Saturday morning just hours after the RAF took out targets in response to the killings in Douma.
They met on Sunday with Hammouda Youssef Sabbagh, speaker of the People’s Council of Syria, and 20 MPs, where they discussed “illegal” British, American and French strikes on Syria.
Mr Fraser, a BBC contributor, posted a tweet saying “our bombing here was a disgrace”, before another of him the Grand Mufti of Syria.
He said he was “talking about how love is stronger than missiles”, but was criticised on social media for then meeting with tyrant Bashar al-Assad’s Minister for Religious Affairs.
Britain has formally severed diplomatic relations with the regime after more than 100 civilians were massacred in the Houla area in May 2012.
Although the delegation wanted to highlight the plight of minority Christians in Syria, HA Hellyer, senior research fellow at the Atlantic Council, said it has given “Damascus a chance to push propaganda”.
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Mr Martin added: “As a government as a whole we want to counter hostile Russian intent towards the democratic system and we have got all sorts of different parts of government working on that.”
There are also suggestion from intelligence insiders Moscow’s revenge could come in the form of “kompromat” – the release of embarrassing information on leading UK politicians and celebrities.
And last month Russia unleashed an “extensive” disinformation operation after the Sergei Skripal poisoning with thousands of suspected robotic accounts spreading conspiracy theories about the Salisbury attack.
In response a National Cyber Security Centre spokesman said: “We are always vigilant to attacks wherever they come from and we have a full spectrum of capabilities to draw on if required.”