Threat to life
London-based critics of the regime in Tehran face growing threats to their lives. Paul Caruana Galizia investigates why this is happening – and who is doing it
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Londongrad
In series one, Tortoise editor Paul Caruana Galizia looks into how Russian money bought up influence, access and power in the British capital.
In series two, Galizia turns his attention to the foiled assassination and kidnap attempts on British soil, all ordered by the Iranian government.
NEW SERIES
Building 11
A lost photographer in a Chiswick business park, a nervous phone caller in LA and a speedboat bound for Caracas – who exactly are the hit men behind the threats?
Department 15
A Hell’s Angels leader and an international heroin trafficker are just some of the unlikely hires for Iranian plots abroad. Who else is Iran commissioning for its assassinations and abductions?
The State
There are many competing visions for Iran and for what the country could become – in this final episode, Paul asks whether enough is being done to protect Iranians overseas.
LISTEN TO Series ONE
Episode 1: The advance party
Britain prides itself on being impregnable; a country which hasn’t been invaded for 1000 years and can’t be bought. The Lebedevs give the lie to all that. They spent a lot, but not a fortune, buying their way into British public life. And they did it in a way which perhaps nobody had tried before: they amused the people who mattered
Episode 2: The Royal Borough of Kensington and Moscow
The oligarchs who made their way to London in the early 2000s and changed it presented themselves as embodiments of the new Russia; members of the global elite, and arms-length beneficiaries of Vladimir Putin’s new order, not slaves to it. Those were the terms on which Britain let them in, but it was mugged
Episode 3: Project Venus
There comes a moment in any successful invasion of a country when you can no longer hide, your plans have to become obvious. It’s a moment of jeopardy but if you can get through it – as Alexander and Evgeny Lebedev did in Britain when they bought first the Evening Standard and later The Independent – then the scale of your ambitions can shift dramatically
Episode 4: Doubling down
Years of warnings about Russia’s intentions had gone unheeded; discounted as scaremongering. But then came the invasion of Crimea, and the end of any doubts. In spite of it all, the Lebedevs’ ascent in London continued, and so did the extraordinary parties
Episode 5: A blind eye
The Intelligence and Security Committee of the British Parliament produced a report into Russian interference in British democracy. Boris Johnson saw it before his general election landslide in 2019. But his government went out of its way to make sure it didn’t see the light of day until long after the election had been fought and won
Episode 6: Lord of the spies
It’s no secret that political patronage can get you a place in the House of Lords. But even people who understand the system well – even peers themselves – were appalled when Boris Johnson decided to extend his patronage to Evgeny Lebedev.
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How the Lebedevs partied their way to power
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