Carole Cadwalladr & Peter Jukes with Ruth Abrahams
Journalists Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes – with the help of Conservative party whistleblower Sergei Cristo – expose an alleged secret spy ring operating at...
Relations between Russia and the Conservative-led British government are being pushed to the brink. In Salisbury, former KGB officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia are found unconscious on a park bench, poisoned by the radioactive nerve agent Novichok. The attack sends shockwaves through Britain and Europe, while the suspected perpetrators are flaunted in a prime time TV interview on Russia Today, convincing Sergei Cristo that his former homeland is now run like a mafia state.NATO countries respond by expelling swathes of Russian diplomats and spies. So why does the UK’s foreign secretary shake off his security detail to party in Italy with his pal, the Russian oligarch Evgeny Lebedev, just one month after this critical incident? Tensions are rising and a demand for answers about Russian interference in British politics growing. But it seems that powerful forces are determined to keep the truth buried.Episodes drop weekly!A Project Citizen productionTo find out more about the story and issues it raises visit www.the-citizens.comPresented by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter JukesWritten by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter JukesProducer and Sound Design: Ruth AbrahamsStudio Producer: Sean Byrne RobertsLocation Producers: Sheridan Flynn and Manasa NarayananOriginal Music: Phil ChannellMixed: Nigel Appleton Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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44:36
The Professor and the Trolls
Westminster is caught up in bitter Brexit debates and Trump’s first term in office is getting mired in investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Suddenly the two worlds collide in the form of an enigmatic Maltese professor, revealed in the unsealing of FBI indictments. Sergei is disgusted with the atmosphere pervading British politics. Meanwhile, new trolling tactics of the Russian embassy, echoed by some on UK political fringes, takes a threatening turn, directed not least against Carole and then UK Prime Minister, Theresa May.How much does the foreign secretary at the time, Boris Johnson, know about suspected Russian interference? Not a sausage it turns out.Episodes drop weekly!A Project Citizen productionTo find out more about the story and issues it raises visit www.the-citizens.comPresented by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter JukesWritten by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter JukesProducer and Sound Design: Ruth AbrahamsStudio Producer: Sean Byrne RobertsLocation Producers: Sheridan Flynn and Manasa Narayanan Original Music: Phil ChannellMixed: Nigel Appleton Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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31:34
Honey Pots and Stalin's Vodka
Sergei Cristo circles back to his first meeting with Nalobin at the Carlton Club in London and the newspaper article that had got the Russian diplomat’s attention. How could this story about a suspected Russian honey pot be linked to activity around the Russian Embassy during the Brexit campaign? And what is a mysterious man introducing himself as Oleg doing at the UKIP party conference at Doncaster race track in 2015? It’s time to tie up some loose ends. Episodes drop weekly!A Project Citizen productionTo find out more about the story and issues it raises visit www.the-citizens.comPresented by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter JukesWritten by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter JukesProducer and Sound Design: Ruth AbrahamsStudio Producer: Sean Byrne RobertsLocation Producers: Sheridan Flynn and Manasa NarayananOriginal Music: Phil ChannellMixed: Nigel Appleton Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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41:31
Question Everything
It’s now 2013 and a new organisation has risen from the ashes of the disgraced Conservative Friends of Russia - the Westminster Russia Forum. This time the launch is on the House of Commons riverside terrace. Russia Today is booming, experimenting with new ways to reach new audiences through packaging up content for online viral hits. Its tagline is question everything. Marina Litvinenko is dismayed when the government rejects her call for a public inquiry into her husband’s fatal poisoning. And in Ukraine, there’s an uprising in Kyiv - the Maidan - a fight to defend a pro-EU, pro-Western future. Months later Russia invades Crimea. Meanwhile, the chatty Russian diplomat who first met Sergei at the Carlton club is socialising across the capital. Has anyone paid any attention to the warnings of Sergei Cristo?Episodes drop weekly!A Project Citizen productionTo find out more about the story and issues it raises visit www.the-citizens.comPresented by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter JukesWritten by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter JukesProducer and Sound Design: Ruth AbrahamsStudio Producer: Sean Byrne RobertsLocation Producers: Sheridan Flynn and Manasa NarayananOriginal Music: Phil ChannellMixed: Nigel Appleton Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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39:42
Digital Barbecues
With seemingly little interest from MI5 in Sergei’s concerns around what he believes to be an illegal offer of Russian funds into the Conservative party, he looks for other ways to raise the alarm. And after the success of the Conservative Friends of Russia launch party, the Russian embassy opens up a new charm offensive, inviting bloggers and social media specialists to ‘digital barbecues’ within their sumptuous surroundings. Insider, Steve Lacey, takes us on his journey down the rabbit hole of Russian propaganda.Episodes drop weekly!A Project Citizen & The Citizens productionTo find out more about the story and issues it raises visit www.the-citizens.comPresented by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter JukesWritten by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes with Ruth AbrahamsProducer and Sound Design: Ruth AbrahamsStudio Producer: Sean Byrne RobertsLocation Producers: Sheridan Flynn and Manasa NarayananOriginal Music: Phil ChannellMixed: Nigel Appleton Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Journalists Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes – with the help of Conservative party whistleblower Sergei Cristo – expose an alleged secret spy ring operating at the very heart of the British political system. This is the untold story of the most audacious Russian influence operation in British history. It involves honey traps, Russian agents and information warfare.Russian wealth and glamour collide with a wild west of new digital landscapes. And as Sergei tries and fails to raise the alarm, this intoxicating cocktail – shaken and stirred from within the Russian Embassy in London – masks the tightening iron fist of Vladimir Putin inside Russia and murder of traitors on foreign soil. All while MPs, intelligence officers and the police turn a blind eye.Not since the reach of the Cambridge spy ring in the second half of the 20th century has the Kremlin aimed so high and gone so unnoticed in penetrating the highest echelons of British politics. Together, Conservative whistleblower Sergei Cristo, Orwell Prize-winning journalist Carole Cadwalladr and creator of the hit podcast, Untold: The Daniel Morgan Murder, Peter Jukes, uncover a story that forms one small corner of Vladimir Putin’s plot against the West. It’s a story we’re still living, where the stakes couldn’t be higher.This podcast seeks to shine a light in the dark corners of a Westminster spy ring hidden in plain sight and search for the answers we all deserve.A Project Citizen & The Citizens production.Sign up for exclusive content, events and more at www.the-citizens.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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