FORMER Wrexham MP Ian Lucas explained how be believes Russian money and influence has subverted UK politics.
Mr Lucas, the Member of Parliament for Wrexham from 2001 to 2019, was speaking on Sky News after more disturbing reports and footage of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine.
Speaking from his home in Llandegla, he said: "Russian interference goes right to the heart of British politics and it's been there for ten years or so."
He added: "For the past ten year's Putin's Russia has been directly interfering with Western politics to try and divide the Western Alliance."
Questioned about whether he supported "fast-racked legislation" to respond to the crisis, he said he did but with reservations.
"Everyone will agree that we need to take action really fast, and I'm sure that right across the House of Commons now it will be welcomed," he said.
Mr Lucas added that up until 2019 he has been calling for action to tackle Russian interference in the UK, adding that the UK Government has "taken millions of pounds of donations from Russian organisations".
Since leaving Parliament, Mr Lucas has penned Digital Gangsters - a book described as "the inside story of how greed, lies and technology broke democracy".
Ian Lucas was part of the Parliamentary investigation which revealed the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which saw personal data belonging to millions of Facebook users collected without their consent to be used in the main for political advertising.
It comes as Russian forces escalated their attacks in Ukraine, bombarding the central square of the country’s second biggest city, Kharkiv.
They also attacked Kyiv’s main TV tower, killing at least five people. The Babi Yar Holocaust memorial was also damaged.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden used his first State of the Union address to announce US airspace was closed to Russian flights, adding his administration would be joining the UK and other allies in pursuing the Russian oligarchs and “corrupt leaders who built billions of dollars of (Vladimir Putin’s) violent regime”.
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