The Britons nurse the feeling that it has much to hide than is apparently visible. They seek to know what made Johnson to take to such a desperate move just at the time when election is knocking at the door. While his close aides have been striving for his image makeover, Boris’s has not gone well with the Britishers.

The gravity of the political situation could be gauged from the simple fact that even Hillary Clinton has described Downing Street’s suppression of the report on Russian infiltration of British politics “damaging, inexplicable and shaming”. Taking a jibe at the people holding back the report she said: “these people ‘think they are the all-powerful, strong men who should be ruling Britishers. It is incredibly surprising and unacceptable that in your country there is a government report sitting there about Russian influence and your current government isn’t releasing it”.

Downing Street was sent a final draft on 17 October and had been expected to sign off the report by the end of last month. However, No 10 indicated that the parliamentary report would not be made public before the election, citing a sign-off process that it said could take six weeks. However the chairman of the committee, Dominic Grieve says the normal timescale was 10 working days.

The report specifically examines attempts by Russia to affect the outcome of the 2016 Brexit referendum and Boris wilfully ignoring evidence of Kremlin interference in the 2016 referendum. The committee has also looked at Russian attempts to influence social media discourse as part of an 18-month inquiry into Kremlin attempts to sow discord in British public life.

Concerns were also submitted to the committee about donations made by Russian-born individuals to the Conservative party; while members examined the poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury, which ultimately led to the death of a British woman, Dawn Sturgess.

The question being asked just ahead of the general election is “Did Russia meddle in the outcome of the Brexit referendum, or didn’t it?” It’s hard to think of a question more pertinent to this general election, and not just because some fear there may be dirty tricks this time too. Significantly Boris Johnson’s entire campaign strategy hinges on Brexit must be done, because it’s the will of the people.

Britons nurse the view that Putin’s goal is to create chaos and instability. After US presidential election Donald Trump had come out with the allegation that Putin had intervened in US election. They hold that former PM Theresa May’s refusal to publicise the facts surroundings her husband’s state-sponsored killing emboldened Moscow. Last year, Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned with novichok in Salisbury – a plot May blamed on Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency.

The dossier examines the threat posed by Russia to the UK, including its subversion and penetration of political institutions, plus Russian killings on British soil and the danger to British allies. Grieve warned MPs the dossier would now not be published until the committee reformed under the new government. In a later statement, he said he was “extremely disappointed and baffled as to why the government has not given a reason why the report cannot be published. We cannot have a situation in which a committee of parliament is not able to share its findings with parliament and the wider public.”

Meanwhile Labour has accused Johnson of an “unjustifiable, unprecedented and politically motivated” suppression of the report which unravels Russian attempts to infiltrate British politics and distort the results of the EU referendum. They also alleged; “this report will lead to questions about the links between Russia and Brexit and the current leadership of the Tory party”.

Fresh evidence has also emerged of attempts by the Kremlin to infiltrate the Conservatives by a senior Russian diplomat suspected of espionage, who spent five years in London cultivating leading Tories including Johnson himself.

It is also alleged that in 2014, Lubov Chernukhin wife of the former Russian deputy finance minister had paid £160,000 to play tennis with Johnson and David Cameron. The match was the star lot at a Conservative summer party auction. Another guest at the 2013 fundraiser was Vasily Shestakov, Vladimir Putin’s judo partner. (IPA Service)