UK Foreign Office Refuses to Publish Data Regarding Its Hybrid Warfare Project

16:49 GMT, 11 December 2018

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LONDON (Sputnik) - The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) will not publish documents and correspondence concerning the London-based hybrid warfare project Integrity Initiative, junior minister Alan Duncan said.

Sputnik

"The FCO's Counter Disinformation and Media Development Programme is designed to protect national security by countering disinformation directed at the UK and its Allies from Russia… Documents and correspondence about projects within the Programme will not be published, as this information could then be used to actively attempt to disrupt and undermine the Programme's effectiveness," the minister Duncan said in a written response to Sputnik.

The comment comes after Hacktivist group Anonymous leaked files last month that it claimed belonged to Integrity Initiative, a UK-financed influence campaign with "clusters" in mainland Europe, Canada and the United States.

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The cost of the Initiative for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2019 was revealed to total $2.51 million. The US State Department, NATO and Facebook were among those alleged to have helped fund the project.

The stated goal of the campaign, according to Anonymous, was to counter Russian disinformation. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, on his part, said earlier it aimed to damage the country’s image abroad.