“It is very likely that the Russian secret services have collected information on Trump, unless they have used them.” Andrei Soldatov comments on the book- investigation Collusion Luke Harding, anticipated by the Republic, the relationship between Trump and the Kremlin. Co-author of The Red Web and director of the Agentura website.ru, Soldatov has been covering Russian secret services since the late 1990s, he knows how they work.

One of Harding’s sources is former Mi6 agent Christopher Steele. What do you think of your memo?

“It contains glaring errors: incorrect names of people and departments. Which of course raises doubts. However, the decision-making process is described in a very credible manner that presupposes sources in the highest spheres. The problem is that in Russia only a very small number of people know the truth. Having a source in a position of power is no guarantee of exact information. The file should be independently verified, but it is almost impossible.”
From Harding’s reconstruction it seems that the Kremlin continues to use the old KGB methods, such as the “kompromat”. Is that so?

“We need to ask ourselves two questions. The first: did the Russian secret services want to gather information about Trump? Very likely. The second: they wanted to use this information to make it fairer? I don’t know. In my opinion you can’t create a lasting relationship just by compromising material. The best way to win someone’s loyalty is to find a common interest. ”
Harding also writes about a possible coordination on hacking operations …

“There is no real evidence of cooperation. The most credible thing remains that the Kremlin thought that Trump could be very useful and that he gathered information about him.”

In the new edition of “The Red Web” he added a chapter on Russian interference in the US election. What is the strongest proof of Vladimir Putin’s involvement?

“The chronology of events. It all happened in April 2016. The publication of the Panama Papers greatly irritated Putin. He urgently called for the meeting of the National Security Council. It was probably then that they discussed how to intervene in the vote in retaliation.”
Allegations of interference also came from London and Spain. Are they credible?

“The Kremlin is not capable of provoking phenomena such as the Brexit and the Catalan referendum, let alone in a year. Try to exploit them, if you can, it is doubtful.”