Paul Staines aka Guido Fawkes in his own words...
He meets a man from the Russian Embassy who he thinks is a spy. They go for a burger - which is absolutely a normal response to meeting someone you think is a Russian spy.
The Russian, Sergey Nalobin, pumps Guido for information. And they become friends.
Exactly what anyone would do confronted by an agent of Putin, isn't it?
The Russian invites him to a drinks party at the Russian embassy and then the Russians start putting money into Paul Staines' business. Totally normal to have Russians putting money your way.
Paul Staines goes along to the Russian embassy and starts giving them advice. It's an event Chaired by Putin's ambassador. And it's Staines' salesman who is keen for him to go - so reasonable to think Guido gets paid for this too.
Guido's Russian friend is indeed a Russian spy, Guido's instincts, when Guido started making friends with him, turn out to be right.
This guy, Paul Staines aka Guido Fawkes, remains to this day the man Boris Johnson's Government works closely with.
And that's the story in *his* words. Staines is notoriously indifferent to the truth. Makes you wonder how much worse the real story is.
It pains me to link to the Spectator but you can read Paul Staines in his own words here (I also like the bit where he doesn't trust himself to go to Russia because there might be photos of what he does.) spectator.co.uk/article/a-very…
Also shouldn't forget that Paul Staines, via his MessageSpace entity, used to help the Russian Embassy explain its "foreign policy positions" for money.
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