The Intelligence and Security Committee in Parliament have published the long-awaited report into Russian interference in UK elections and referendums.

What were the conclusions?

• The report criticised lack of action from the government, for failing to investigate possible Russian interference in the Scottish independence and Brexit referendums

• The committee said the government shouldn't blame intelligence agencies, after potential problems were not investigated and pursued by successive governments following the 2014 Scottish independence referendum
• The report called for "immediate action", but said the government was "playing catch-up" after failing to act sooner
• Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said the government will be "resolute in defending our country"
• Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said the report is "quite damning" and accused the government of acting too slowly
• The Russian foreign ministry has called the report "Russophobia"
• Dominic Grieve, former chair of the committee, said he was "frustrated" and angry over how long it had taken the report to be published
• Julian Lewis, the new chair of the committee, said such a delay in publication "must never happen again".

That's where we leave our coverage of the report's publication.

You can continue to read more about the report here: Russia report: UK 'playing catch up' against Russian interference

Thanks for joining us.

Dominic Grieve, the former Intelligence and Security Committee chairman, speaks of his “frustration” and “anger” over the delay in publishing the Russia report.

Ben Butcher
BBC Reality Check

The report mentions the “exploitation” of the UK’s investor visa scheme by wealthy Russians and calls for an “overhaul” of the system.

“The UK welcomed Russian money, and few questions – if any – were asked about the provenance of this considerable wealth,” the report says.

The investor visa – also known as a Tier 1 (Investor) visa or ‘golden visa’ – allows very wealthy foreign nationals to invest in the UK in exchange for the right to legally work and live in the country.

The amount of money has changed over the years, but currently the minimum spend required is £2m.

If you invest more, it speeds up how long you need to wait before you can claim citizenship.

Between 2009 and 2019, 852 Russians used the scheme, representing a fifth of all the investor visas granted.

Sarah Rainsford
BBC Moscow Correspondent

The reaction from Russia has been a big collective shrug.

The Russian foreign minister dismissed the report out of hand and called it Russopbobia.

And a Kremlin spokesman said Russia doesn't meddle in other countries elections.

What this report has done is to present a broad picture of Russia as a powerful foe.

And I don't think in the Kremlin they will be too unhappy at that.

US Defence Secretary Mark Esper has said it is very clear Russia wants to influence elections in the United States.

Speaking to the international security think tank, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Mr Esper did not directly answer a question about the UK’s Russia report.

But he said: “I wouldn’t put it past Russia to try and influence any election.”

Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy calls the report "quite damning".

She says it "paints a very bad picture" of the government, which was "far too slow" to react and act against the Russian threat.

Ms Nandy criticises a "lack of strategy" in government.

She says it is time for the government to "wake up" and "take the gaping hole in our defences seriously". Labour is calling for action, she says.

Olga Robinson
Disinformation specialist, BBC Monitoring

In the section on the 2016 EU referendum and whether Russian interfered in it, the report refers to ‘open source’ studies which pointed to “the preponderance of pro-Brexit or anti-EU stories on RT and Sputnik, and the use of ‘bots’ and ‘trolls’, as evidence of Russian attempts to influence the process”.

So, what did they find?

Research by 89up, a communications agency, suggested that in the run-up to the vote Russia’s flagship international media outlets, RT and Sputnik, published over 200 articles on the EU referendum that had anti-EUsentiment, external.

Another study, external, by researchers from University of Edinburgh, highlighted that some accounts identified by Twitter as having links to the Russian “troll factory” that sought to influence the 2016 election in the US also tweeted on Brexit-related issues before and after the vote.

Similarly, joint research bySwansea University and the University of California, Berkeley, external, identified over 150,000 Russian accounts that tweeted about Brexit ahead of the vote.

Dominic Grieve says there were “warning signs” about Russia during the Scottish referendum in 2014.

“We should have been alert in 2016 to the possibility of interference,” he says

“But because we were not alert we did nothing about it.

“And subsequently when the committee came to ask the question - can you tell us there wasn't interference - we really weren't able to get an answer

“And we thought that was a very unfortunate state of affairs.

“Maybe the penny has dropped now and the lesson has been learnt.”

Former chair of the committee Dominic Grieve says he has “no idea” why the report was delayed.

“There are two schools of thought - one is that they didn't like part of the content and they didn't want it publish just before the election.

"I’ve never really understood that - there are some things that might make uncomfortable reading but I think it was a very much in the public interest.

“The other one is that it was done because I was the chair and I had become an independent MP and they didn't want me to have the publicity.

“If that is the explanation it is shallow and base."

He says he is pleased the report has now been published but adds: “My pleasure is mitigated by a sense of frustration and bluntly anger at the way the government behaved over this report in October last year.

“There is no valid reason for it not being published then."

Reality Check

According to the report, Russia aims to be seen as a resurgent ‘great power’.

It describes Russia’s worldview as a “zero-sum-game” whereby “any actions it can take which damage the West are fundamentally good for Russia”.

The authors also suggest that the Russian government is fed by paranoia, “believing that Western institutions such as Nato and the EU have a far more aggressive posture towards it than they do in reality.”

The report suggests that because Russia has substantial military power, in comparison to a relatively small population and a weak economy, its government believes that “an undemocratic ‘might is right’ world order plays to its strengths, which leads it to seek to undermine the Rules-Based International Order.”

The UK, it says, is seen as a prime target, probably due to its close relationship to the United States.

The ISC has published its long-awaited report into Russian influence in the UK, saying it was "the new normal, external".

So what have we learned from the report and the press conference elaborating on its publication?

• The UK government has "actively avoided" looking for Russian interference during the EU referendum

• The UK remains a top target for Russia in spreading such disinformation, as it views the country as an adversary
• Russian interference has become "the new normal", since "flashing lights" on the "dashboard of democracy" were first seen in the immediate aftermath of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, when Russian media published stories on so-called voting irregularities
• The committee has said it was "beyond them" to try and work out "why there has been such an omission and information of potential interference was never requested" by the UK government

Frank Gardner
BBC Security Correspondent

The committee's big criticism is that Russian interference in the Brexit referendum was not investigated and it should have been.

The problem here is partly a Whitehall one - no-one was taking responsibility.

Interestingly, when MI5 was asked for their input they provided just six lines of text.

That wasn't laziness, that was indicative of extreme reluctance on the part of intelligence agencies to be seen as interfering in the UK democratic process.

Reality Check

On the question of whether Russia sought to influence the EU referendum in 2016, the committee highlights “open source studies” which have “pointed to the preponderance of pro-Brexit or anti-EU stories on RT and Sputnik [both Russian international outlets]…as evidence of Russian attempts to influence the process”.

It said it tried to establish whether there is secret intelligence “which supported or built on these studies”.

But “in response to our request for written evidence at the outset of the Inquiry, MI5 initially provided just six lines of text”.

The report goes on: “It stated that *** [this part has been redacted or censored], before referring to academic studies."

It says: “The brevity was also, to us, again, indicative of the extreme caution amongst the intelligence and security agencies at the thought that they might have any role in relation to the UK’s democratic processes, and particularly one as contentious as the EU referendum. We repeat that this attitude is illogical."

Gordon Corera
Security correspondent, BBC News

This report may not be what some expected. But it is still damning.

Many expected the committee to have answered the question of whether there was interference in political events like Brexit.

Instead, it says the problem was that government and the spy agencies have failed to have even look at this question.

British intelligence has, at least in recent years, been reluctant to get involved in anything that looks "political" and treated the issue of trying to protect democracy like a "hot potato".

But ultimately it’s the government that the committee blames.

More broadly, there are serious questions about the failure of the UK to confront the spread of Russian money and influence over a long period and there is an urgent call for new legislation to deal with an ongoing challenge.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mariya Zakharova has called the Russia Report “Russophobia set in a fake shape".

Mariya Zakharova said: “There was no sensation. It’s Russophobia set in a fake shape”.

A literal translation of "fake shape" means like a stone set in a ring.

Earlier, during the press conference, Alex Hudson from Newsweek asked how much more the committee was expecting to gain with an investigation into inference into the 2019 general election?

Mr Howsie says the new committee "will seek further inquiries into this, into the intelligence that would stand this up. At this point we would be able to answer the question much more clearly."

Mr Jones says they have not seen any classified information about alleged involvement in the general election 2019.

"We will assess it once we get the intelligence," he says.

The government said last week that Russians almost certainly sought to interfere in the 2019 UK general election through illicitly acquired documents.

Read more here.

In his closing remarks, Julian Lewis says: "This committee has been subjected to unprecedented delay and dislocation.

"This really must never happen again.

"The sooner normal relations are restored between this committee and the government the better it will be for all concerned.

"Yet that prospect has not been helped by the government refusing to tell us what was in the written ministerial statement that was written about this report which the government chose to table in the Commons at 10:30 this morning to clash with the start of this event."

Two different conclusions drawn from the Russia report here:

Guy Verhofstadt, chief Brexit negotiator for the European Parliament, says: "Brexit was always a gift to Putin because it weakened the EU and left Britain divided, isolated - the Russia Report shows just how many questions remain unanswered."

While Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage says: "Years of lies and smears from Remain politicians and much of our media. There is no evidence of Russian involvement with Leave.EU or me in the referendum. It was all a hoax - apologies are now required."

The Mirror's Ben Glaze asks what Russia seeks to gain from interfering in UK politics, he asks if there is any reason they wouldn't try to have interfered in the Brexit referendum.

"They have form in this area," replies Labour's Kevan Jones, adding "it takes a number of different approaches" whether from fake news or amplifying existing divisions.

Russia is attempting to "disorientate what it sees as one of its adversaries", he adds.

The SNP's Stewart Hosie says it carries out attacks in order to "position itself as a resurgent great power".

Mr Glaze asks what social media companies can do to prevent disinformation from Russia.

Mr Jones says that disinformation needs to be taken down as quickly as possible, and those publishing it need to be "named and shamed".