Two extraordinary stories collide this week. The Senate Intelligence report on Russia. And the deeply sinister poisoning of Navalny. And there’s a figure who connects them both. And us: Oleg Deripaska.
You need to watch this video. And I’ll explain..
Navalny isn’t just the main opposition figure in Russia. He also does extraordinary investigations into Kremlin corruption & is a gifted storyteller. The video is in Russian but has subtitles & tells an amazing story with footage taken on Deripaska’s yacht rferl.org/a/russia-derip…
So many disturbing aspects to this. Deripaska was named in Senate’s report as proxy of the Kremlin who conducts influence operations abroad. There are pages & pages about him & his associate a Russian intelligence officer & their r’ship with Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort
Oleg Deripaska was clearly involved in Russia’s attack on US election. That’s what the report says. And in this video from 2018, Navalny exposes what he says are Kremlin bribes.
There’s so much more to this because in the video, there’s an explosive reference to Deripaska interfering in US election (explosive in 2018). She also claimed to have hours more evidence. This is how the Russian govt responded at the time, by blocking Navalny’s website
Two huge news events in US & Russia. An unequivocal finding of Russian interference in the US election. A poisoning of the Kremlin’s biggest critic.
...& here in Britain, total silence. Yet this same oligarch has links to heart of UK establishment dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2…
Deripaska funnels Kremlin money into foreign elections. That’s what the report says. It says he is directly involved in Russia’s attacks on Western democracy. And this is exactly what we know he tried to do in Britain where he still has a house & business
The man who tried to expose Deripaska’s relationship with the Kremlin is fighting for his life. The US Senate has unequivocally named him as a key player in the attack on US democracy. And in Britain? Silence & £££
I noticed Charlotte Owen, the junior aide Boris Johnson controversially ennobled, has a new gig with - shock! - Boris Johnson. But that’s only the start. There’s also uranium, Iran, Steve Bannon..& a LOT of qs
Boris Johnson has gone into business with this chap - Amir Adnani. He’s a uranium entrepreneur. And the photo he’s shared is the VP of his company meeting Johnson in parliament when he was still prime minister. 🧐
At some point - 4 days before he left office to put a number on it - Boris Johnson got *very* bullish on nuclear energy & committed £700m to the endlessly controversial Sizewell C reactor
You’ll remember from your science lessons that nuclear reactors run on…uranium
Yesterday I wrote a piece about Elon Musk for @ObserverUK, a free speech warrior so committed to the cause he serially sues his critics for libel. Today he responds to an untrue tweet about my own libel case. 1/
This is the article.
What I said in this ‘hateful’ piece is that Elon Musk believes in free speech in the same way he believes in free Teslas. Free for him & very expensive for everyone else.
NEW: I'm seeking permission to appeal in the Supreme Court. There's no meaningful free expression in this country if after proving your speech is lawful, you're hit with £££ costs: a devastating ruling that will chill public interest journalism
by @_EmmaGH theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/m…
This was filed today in the Court of Appeal. If the Supreme Court rejects it, we believe there’s a strong case to take it to the European Court of Human Rights.
Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights puts an obligation on states to ensure freedom of expression. According to the ruling in this case, it's very far from free: even if you can prove your speech is lawful, it'll still cost you hundreds of thousands of pounds...
It's been a long time but v happy to be back in @ObserverUK today with 2 pieces, both close to my heart. And to launch a new project with @allthecitizens.
1/ An astonishing new claim that MI5 refused to investigate Russian spy's infiltration of Tory party theguardian.com/politics/2023/…
2/ Delighted to profile the fierce & brilliant @pevchikh for @ObsNewReview. If you've seen the Navalny doc, she's the woman sitting by Navalny's side as he calls one of his FSB poisoners & gets him to confess to Novichoking his underpants. theguardian.com/world/2023/jan…
3/ Finally, the story of how the Kremlin captured Britain. And how the UK government covered it up. If you've wondered why no British broadcaster has told the real story behind the Russia Report, please watch this & consider contributing.
My jaw hit the floor when I discovered Boris Johnson left an emergency NATO meeting after the Kremlin’s chemical warfare attack on Britain & flew to an off-the-books meeting with an ex-KGB spy.
In July 2019, Johnson had just been made PM. And @nickhopkinsnews published 2 extraordinary stories about Foreign Secretary Johnson flying from a NATO meeting to a party in Italy at the height of the Skripal crisis.
The party was at Evgeny Lebedev’s villa. The owner of Independent & Evening Standard.
Hopkins’s first story suggested he’d given his security detail the slip to fly to Italy. Then a Guardian reader supplied photos of him leaving: hungover & dishevelled 3/