New York (CNN) The distribution of a leaked UK trade agreement with the United States, currently the subject of heated debate ahead of the United Kingdom's general elections, is likely the work of an established information operation with suspected ties to Russian intelligence, Reddit said Friday.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the UK's opposition Labour Party, has argued that the leaks show Prime Minister Boris Johnson has discussed the UK's National Health Service with the US government. It's unclear how the documents were originally leaked, but they were first posted to Reddit in October.

A Labour spokesperson said: "These documents reveal the plot against our NHS. And of course neither the UK nor the US government have denied their authenticity. Our releasing them to journalists was clearly in the public interest."

The accounts that originally shared and promoted the agreement mimicked the behavior, account names and obscure hosting sites of a Russian operation on Facebook that the company took down earlier this year. Researchers at the Atlantic Council, given those accounts' details and histories, dubbed the operation "Secondary Infektion" after its resemblance to a Soviet-era propaganda campaign, and determined it was likely the work of Russian intelligence.

"Attribution is always the hardest part of any investigation into information operations. Reddit's statement strengthens the link between the trade leaks and the earlier Russian operation," Ben Nimmo, who led that research, told CNN.

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