Slow Newscast
2022 picks – Lebedev: Lord of Siberia
Door after door in Britain has been opened for Evgeny Lebedev, all the way to the House of Lords. Who has opened them, and why?
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The Lebedevs and sanctions
A leak of documents seen by Tortoise reveals Alexander Lebedev’s businesses in Russian-occupied Crimea breached EU sanctions for years – his son Evgeny appears to have been in personal breach for a shorter period
Sensemaker
Sensemaker: The Lebedevs and sanctions
What just happened
Sensemaker Audio
Londongrad revisited
Boris Johnson has finally admitted to meeting a former KGB officer without officials in a palace in Italy. Why does it matter?
The Johnson Affair
A former KGB officer, the foreign secretary, and an Italian palazzo in the wake of the Skripal poisonings – the meeting that may come to define Boris Johnson’s political career
Sensemaker
Sensemaker: The Johnson Affair
What just happened
Londongrad
Londongrad: The Johnson Affair
A former KGB officer, Britain’s foreign secretary – and a potential national security breach
Quarterly
Londongrad: How the Lebedevs partied their way to power
Paul Caruana Galizia’s investigation into the Lebedevs’ ascent to the top of London’s establishment reveals how easy it was for Britain to be bought
Londongrad
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.
Slow Newscast
2022 picks – Lebedev: Lord of Siberia
Door after door in Britain has been opened for Evgeny Lebedev, all the way to the House of Lords. Who has opened them, and why?
Sensemaker Audio
Londongrad revisited
Boris Johnson has finally admitted to meeting a former KGB officer without officials in a palace in Italy. Why does it matter?
Londongrad
Londongrad: The Johnson Affair
A former KGB officer, Britain’s foreign secretary – and a potential national security breach
Londongrad
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.
Londongrad
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
Londongrad
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
Londongrad
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
Londongrad
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
Londongrad
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
thinkin
Making sense of Londongrad, with Paul Caruana-Galizia
In his recent Londongrad podcast series which investigated the influence of Russian oligarchs, Paul Caruana-Galizia uncovered the extent of Russian influence at the heart of UK government, business and the media. What does the story of the oligarchs say about Britain and its place in the world today? Has the country been betrayed by the very institutions that are supposed to protect it, and can the situation be fixed? As we build a clearer picture of the scale and complexity of Russian influence in the UK, what are the options for the future? editor and invited experts Paul Caruana-GaliziaReporter Bill BrowderCEO and Co-Founder, Hermitage Capital Management
thinkin
Welcome to Londongrad: why does London still attract so much dirty money?
This is a newsroom ThinkIn. In-person and digital-only tickets are available.Forget the fleshpots and tax havens — they may or may not get cleaned up by well-intentioned international initiatives. London on the other hand seems determined to go on sucking in ill-gotten gains from Kaliningrad to Guangzhou and most places in between. Why? Was being a tax haven, laundromat and magnet for Russian oligarchs part and parcel of being a global financial capital? Was it really such a bad thing if the world’s billionaires want to bring their money into the city? Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to the introduction of some financial sanctions, and the impact of these remains to be seen, but has the damage already been done to London’s reputation? editor and invited experts Giles WhittellSensemaker Editor Bill BrowderCEO Hermitage Capital; Head of Global Magnitsky Justice campaign; Author, ‘Red Notice and Freezing Order’ (June 2022) Dame Margaret Hodge MPMP for Barking; Co-chair, APPG on Anti-Corruption & Responsible Tax Michael O’KaneHead of Business Crime, Peters & Peters
The Lebedevs and sanctions
A leak of documents seen by Tortoise reveals Alexander Lebedev’s businesses in Russian-occupied Crimea breached EU sanctions for years – his son Evgeny appears to have been in personal breach for a shorter period
Sensemaker
Sensemaker: The Lebedevs and sanctions
What just happened
The Johnson Affair
A former KGB officer, the foreign secretary, and an Italian palazzo in the wake of the Skripal poisonings – the meeting that may come to define Boris Johnson’s political career
Sensemaker
Sensemaker: The Johnson Affair
What just happened
Quarterly
Londongrad: How the Lebedevs partied their way to power
Paul Caruana Galizia’s investigation into the Lebedevs’ ascent to the top of London’s establishment reveals how easy it was for Britain to be bought
Know more
Johnson had a pandemic to deal with, but he also had a friend to promote
Photo Essay
Evgeny Lebedev: In pictures
Little is publicly known about Evgeny Lebedev’s rise to the upper echelons of the British establishment – but there are plenty of photographs