By MARCO GIANNANGELI
The attacks, which have been reported to the national fraud and cyber crime recording centre, include a series of 441 “brute force” hacking attempts every month since July. Their aim, HJS says, was to alter content on its website critical of Moscow and insert “fake news’ articles to break public confidence. However, Russia also targeted the email account belonging Dr Andrew Foxall, director of its Russia and Eurasia Studies Centre, to gain intelligence of Russian dissident activity in London and links to intelligence agencies.
Over the past year it has hosted events with figures including Marina Litvinenko, wife of assassinated former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, Bill Browder, the businessman-turned-human right campaigner, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition figure who has been poisoned twice.
The organisation has also published research exposing what it says is evidence of the Kremlin’s trail of “ill-gotten wealth” stored in London.
A report it published earlier this year, How Does the Kremlin Wage War?, authored by Bob Seely, a Conservative MP and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, detailed the tools that Russia is currently using in its ‘full spectrum’ war against the West.
New of the attack follows revelations that Russia made similar attempts against to high profile Putin-sceptic think tanks in the US - the Hudson Institute and the International Republican Institute (IRI) - ahead of upcoming mid-term elections.
Last night Dr Foxall said he was not surprised by the attempts, all of which failed.
“London is a key city for the Kremlin. It is the front line of Putin’s domestic attempts to crush down on opposition figures given the number of high profile dissidents that live here. These are the sorts of people I deal with,” he said.
“When Boris Berezovsky was alive, he formed the centre of so-called Londongrad. After his death it dispersed somewhat, and the Kremlin still wants to keep track of those voices.”
London is also a key location for Russia to asses how the international community views it, he said.
“Putin is obsessed by how Russia is viewed in the West, and I deal with politicians, civil servants, policy analysts and certain members of our security services - though only through very secure channels for the latter,
“They were trying to monitor and obtain contact details on those two distinct groups of people.”
London is also a key location for Russia (Image: seksan Mongkhonkhamsao/Getty Images)
He added that the GRU had also hoped to infiltrate its website.
“We know from other hackings, including TV5Monde in France and the Polish stock exchange, that Russian military intelligence uses servers in third party countries. In our case it was server based in Istanbul.
“When it took over TV5Monde in 2015, it took its website down and tried to blame the US.
“But it demonstrated a more subtle approach last year when it it hacked a Lithuanian news agency and changing altered news stories as well as inserting fake news stories both not he front and within its archives.
“As always, its aim is to confuse readers about what was real news and what wasn’t.’
Samuel Armstrong, Communications Manager at the Henry Jackson Society, added: “This campaign of attacks follows a trend in which the Kremlin and GRU has waged cyber-war against vocal critics of Vladimir Putin and his regime. Over many years, we have worked to highlight the ways in which Putin and his cronies threaten not only the security of the Russian people but also our way of life in the West. We view the recent attack as a badge of honour and will not be cowed.”
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