Stop blaming Russia for the Southport riots

It isn’t hard to find sticks to beat Russia with. The international, let alone national, charge sheet is long and serious, from invading Ukraine to imprisoning people on trumped-up charges to manipulating its own elections. But to blame Russia for fomenting anti-Muslim violence in Southport in the north-west of England this week is really quite a stretch. It is a claim that says rather more about this country than it does about Russia.

I am not sure when the habit of looking for a Russian hand behind the UK’s many ills began. But when things go wrong, especially in the tech and information sphere, the default position is now to assume Russia’s guilt, unless it can be specifically ruled out. I have little doubt, for instance, that if the pre-Olympics railway sabotage had happened in the UK, rather than in France, ministers would have been on the air blaming Russia within minutes.

In the case of the Southport stabbing, the blame game was a little more insidious. In the immediate aftermath of the murder of three young girls and the injuring of eight more kids and adults, speculation naturally swirled online about who would commit such a heinous act and why. One false rumour emerged on the day of the incident that the suspect was an asylum seeker named ‘Ali Al-Shakati’, who was on an MI6 watchlist and had a history of mental-health issues. By the evening, Merseyside Police were forced to issue a statement that these reports were not true.

The Russian dimension came in when protests erupted and turned violent, targeting a mosque. Former Conservative security minister Stephen McPartland suggested that these had been sparked by a Russian disinformation campaign on social media. The UK’s swelling band of ‘disinformation’ experts trawled the web to track down the origin of the false report, alighting on an ill-defined operation calling itself Channel3 Now. The news site is, apparently, linked to Russia. However, subsequent reports suggested that the rumour might actually have its origins rather closer to Southport, originating with a UK-based X account. It seems as though Channel3 Now simply picked up the report and augmented the audience, thanks to its greater reach. It later removed the claim from its site.

In any case, the fallout of this erroneous report is clear. Within 24 hours, responsibility for violent unrest was pinned on the seditious alliance that is presumed to exist between the UK’s far right and the Russian state – both, apparently, seek to destabilise this otherwise green and pleasant land.

So why did these falsehoods gain so much currency? Any potential Russian involvement is neither here nor there. The real problem was that the police and other authorities had left a yawning gap at a time when the public was desperate for information. Everyone wanted to know who this individual was who had gone into a dance studio and set about stabbing small children.

Initially, the police only disclosed that the suspect was 17. Then they grudgingly revealed other aspects of his identity – first that he was born in Cardiff, then that his parents were from Rwanda.

Granted, the authorities had a problem. The suspect was a minor, who could not be legally named. By the time the police had put out enough background information to discredit the first false report, it was too late to restore public trust.

This may serve as a lesson for similar situations in future, but the information vacuum is a failing of officialdom. It cannot be pinned on Russia.

There is really no need for the Kremlin to be fishing in troubled waters. Surely, it has rather bigger and more urgent concerns than to exploit a terrible crime in an English seaside town. It is a very self-absorbed, UK-centric view to assume that a Putin priority is to destabilise the UK.

The regrettable truth is that no outside intervention was needed for the Southport stabbing to cause so much chaos. Both the popularity of the false report and the social tensions escalating into violence were more or less guaranteed by the behaviour of the authorities. Blaming Russia simply diverts attention away from what has been a critical failure at every level of officialdom to address widespread public concerns. The record number of new arrivals, the use of hotels, a shortage of housing and a perceived double standard in policing have all fuelled resentment. The frequent reluctance of the authorities to give out credible information, or any information at all, only makes things worse.

Officials need to be a lot more open about what they know. Their refusal to do so is what led to situations like the 2022 Leicester riots, the unrest in Harehills in Leeds earlier this month, and now to the violent unrest in Southport. Appealing to the public to resist speculation is not going to cut it when real and relevant information is kept under wraps. Blaming Russia is only a pathetic attempt to let panicked authorities off the hook.

Mary Dejevsky is a writer and broadcaster. She was Moscow correspondent for The Times between 1988 and 1992. She has also been a correspondent from Paris, Washington and China.