UK took its 'eye off the ball' on Russian meddling, long-awaited report finds

British intelligence services were distracted by the post 9/11 terrorist threat and didn't give enough priority to Russia's attempts to gain influence in the UK, which Moscow regarded as one of its top targets, the UK parliament's cross-party Intelligence and Security Committee said.

The British government failed to conduct a proper inquiry into allegations of a Kremlin-sponsored influence campaign during the Brexit referendum, the report concluded. One of the members of the committee said the government was afraid of what such an investigation might show. British intelligence agencies didn't see the security of UK elections as part of their role because they feared the issue was a "hot potato," the report said.

The findings are the result of an 18-month investigation into Russia's influence in UK politics and public life. The report was delayed when Prime Minister Boris Johnson called a general election as it was being completed. The committee was critical of the delay in publication.

"Russian influence in the UK is the new normal," the report concluded. "Successive governments have welcomed the oligarchs and their money with open arms, providing them with a means of recycling illicit finance through the London 'laundromat', and connections at the highest levels with access to UK companies and political figures," the committee said in a press release as the report was launched.

On Brexit, it accused the government of failing to protect the process against Russian influence, "The Committee has not been provided with any post-referendum assessment -- in stark contrast to the US response to reports of interference in the 2016 presidential election. In our view there must be an analogous assessment of Russian interference in the EU referendum."

The document, with a redacted annex, was based on interviews behind closed doors with experts and members of the country's intelligence community.

Johnson was accused of blocking its publication ahead of last year's general election, in which his Conservative Party won a landslide victory.

Opposition politicians accused the government of a cover-up, saying it could raise awkward questions about the validity of the Brexit referendum in 2016 and expose the alleged Russian connections of some in the ruling Conservative party.

Among the committee's expert witnesses were former MI6 spy Christopher Steele, author of the explosive Trump-Russia dossier that painted a picture of widespread conspiracy of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, a document that Trump has dismissed as "phony" and full of lies.