Hillary Clinton has said democracy is “under siege” and that she cannot understand why the press, public and political establishment are “so reluctant to call out what the Russians have been doing”.

The former US first lady, who lost the race for the White House to Donald Trump in 2016, also said it is “troubling” to her that history has been, in her view, either obscured or lost.

Mrs Clinton was marking the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at the University of Oxford.

The former US secretary of state said on Monday evening: “As we learn more about the role that (Vladimir) Putin, oligarchs around him, the Russian government particularly, the intelligence forces have played, we see that it’s not just what they did in our election in the United States.

“They have been actively supporting right wing political parties and politicians.”

Mrs Clinton added: “I don’t understand why the press, the political establishment and the public are so reluctant to call out what the Russians have been doing.

“What they did in Brexit, what they did in the United States.”

US Presidential election
Hillary Clinton was defeated by Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election (PA)

The former first lady said: “You have to understand what Putin’s goal is.

“He called the collapse of the Soviet Union the biggest catastrophe in history.

“Now, that takes some doing to think that was the biggest catastrophe in history.”

Mrs Clinton urged people to “follow the money”, and said: “When the NRA spends more money against me than they’ve ever spent against any candidate, more than 30 million dollars, and they’ve been going to Russia?”

Universal Declaration of Human Rights 70th anniversary
Hillary Rodham Clinton at Oxford University (Victoria Jones/PA)

She also mentioned funding for the Leave campaign.

“You just might think it came from one of the Oligarchs at Putin’s direction,” she said.

Mrs Clinton said “the list is really long now”, adding: “The internet has given them a great advantage because they are able to sow discontent, divisiveness and false information incredibly easily.”

She added: “It’s only going to get worse, and this is something that I think everybody needs to pay attention to.

“The technology has advanced so much that it’s not only the false stories that the phony news services are now directing at your Facebook feed, it will be taking the words you say out of many different contexts and putting it together to say something you never said.”

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, former Principal of Mansfield College, who was among those campaigning to bring the statue to Oxford, joined Mrs Clinton in conversation on the role that women have played in promoting and protecting human rights.

Rainbow’s End
Eleanor Roosevelt (PA)

During the event, Mrs Clinton said: “Democracy is under siege, international cooperation is being diminished and dismissed, and we have to ask ourselves, how do we maintain the democratic experiment in self government and how do we find the cooperation around the world and stand against this tide that seems to be sweeping Europe and the United States that is really undermining the extraordinary work that was done.”

Mrs Clinton unveiled a statue of America’s war time first lady Eleanor Roosevelt outside the Institute and became an honorary fellow of Mansfield College.

The bronze statue, by artist Penelope Jencks, presents Mrs Roosevelt in a quiet and reflective pose and is a second casting of the statue that stands in Riverside Park, Manhattan.

The event was billed An Evening Celebration Of Three Remarkable Women: Eleanor Roosevelt, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton & Baroness Helena Kennedy QC.

Mrs Clinton will give the keynote speech at a conference on Confronting Illiberalism: The Role Of The Media, Civil Society And Universities on Tuesday.