Open Letter: Russia Set Britain on Fire. We Demand an Inquiry.

You can read our full open letter asking the government to take action and call a comprehensive and transparent inquiry that looks at the full range of Russian interference in Britain.

Dear Prime Minister, 

Today’s convictions at the Old Bailey reveal a grave national security threat.

Roman Lavrynovych, 22, and Stanislav Carpiuc, 27, have been found guilty of conspiring to carry out arson attacks in May 2025. A BBC Panorama investigation, aided by research provided by HOPE not hate, reveals that the men were recruited through an online Telegram channel called Direct Action. In February 2025, HOPE not hate revealed that the Direct Action channel was likely operated from Russia.

The men were offered money to carry out arson attacks on property linked to you. This alone should be a matter of urgent concern. The wider evidence uncovered by HOPE not hate and the BBC is even more alarming.

Direct Action did not only seek to carry out arson attacks. It also attempted to inflame community tensions in Britain.

Lavrynovych and Carpiuc were encouraged to post far right and anti-Muslim posters and slogans on walls around London, including on the side of mosques. At the same time, Direct Action were attempting to recruit British Muslims to carry out Islamist terrorism. 

They were not picking sides. They were lighting fires everywhere.

The channel also amplified the far-right figure Stephen Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, promoting his demonstrations and creating supporting videos. 

The Direct Action network would later provide an astonishingly large library of terrorist training documents, including manuals on how to create explosives and 3D-printed firearms, and directed its members to violently attack minority groups and places of worship. 

While investigating Direct Action, we came across a further network comprising seven propaganda channels that were set up in 2024. They were the work of Rybar, a Russian pro-government media outlet that was funded by the notorious Wagner Group, and which has been sanctioned in the USA and the UK because of election interference.

Six of the seven channels, which had names like “Two-Tier Keir”, “Radio Southport” and “CALM NO MORE”, were set up on 6 August 2024, a week into the country-wide riots that followed the appalling murder of children in Southport. These channels amplified the far-right spin: that the UK is a failed state, and “natives” are discriminated against by a “two-tier justice” system that favours ethnic minorities.

The Direct Action plot is just the latest in a long series of attempts by Russia to interfere in Britain, divide communities and incite trouble. From the EU referendum campaign to amplifying anti-Muslim rhetoric during the 2017 terrorist attacks, bribing UKIP and Reform officials to inflaming community tensions during the 2024 riots, Russian activities in British politics needs to be thoroughly investigated in order to prevent them from happening again.

This is not a conspiracy theory. It is real. And it demands urgent action.

That is why we are calling on the Government to launch a full public inquiry into Russian interference in British politics.

Previous investigations, most recently the Intelligence and Security Committee’s 2020 Russia Report, were limited in scope and their recommendations were largely ignored. The Government’s current Independent Review of Foreign Financial Interference is welcome, but its scope is limited to finance.

This goes far deeper than money. It is about who Russia recruited, who they paid, who they directed, how far this operation reached into Britain, and how we stop it happening again.

What is now needed is a transparent inquiry that looks at the full range of Russian interference in British politics, investigates those peddling Russian propaganda, and understands how this fits into the global anti-democratic operation being driven by the Putin regime.

Britain cannot wait for the next attack before taking this threat seriously.

Yours sincerely,

HOPE not hate and the undersigned