Carole Cadwalladr Profile picture
Mar 6, 2022 11 tweets 6 min read Read on X
This twitter thread crystallised for me why Lebedev coverage today so frustrating.

Russian soldiers are killing women & children trying to flee.

And our prime minister's relationship with the son of an ex-KGB agent is deeply problematic.

AS WE HAVE KNOWN FOR YEARS
1/
To be clear, @Gabriel_Pogrund's story in ST following up @pcaruanagalizia revelations is important.

A breakthrough moment.

But we have been trying to tell story not just of Lebedev but of Johnson's Russian links FOR YEARS
2/
thetimes.co.uk/article/boris-…
In July 2019, @nickhopkinsnews did pair of jaw dropping stories. Johnson had attended a NATO summit on sanctions post-Skripal.

He threw off security detail, flew to Italy & partied with Lebedev.

And then the photos turned up: Johnson, a hungover mess
3/

theguardian.com/politics/2019/…
Then @TownsendMark & I revealed extra gobsmacking detail.

It wasn't just Evgeny Lebedev at party. His father, Alexander, the ex-KGB agent flew in from Russia.

Reminder: this was immediately after Putin used a prohibited chemical weapon on UK soil.
4/
theguardian.com/media/2019/nov…
Russia attacked one British citizen. And killed another. With a banned unconventional weapon. An act of aggression that led to sanctions & UK & US & EU expelling dozens of Russian spies.

And Boris Johnson's response was to leave a NATO summit to meet an ex-KGB spy? WHAT?!?
5/
Is there even any such thing as an ex-KGB agent?

Litvenko (FSU) was poisoned with radiation. Skripal (GRU) was Novichocked.

And what does Lebedev Snr do now? Well here he is spreading Russian propaganda in newspaper his son owns.
6/
independent.co.uk/voices/comment…
What are Alexander Lebedev's views on illegal annexation of Crimea? They're Putin's views.

Unsurprisingly. He has business in Crimea. Remember, Russia didn't invade Ukraine last week. Crimea IS Ukraine. And it invaded in 2014.

So what on earth is Johnson deal with him & son?
7/ Image
We don't know. Because despite major investigations by Jim Cusick, @lukeharding1968 & @johnsweeneyroar, it was buried.

Because in Britain, if r/w media & BBC ignore. It's not a story.

Yet it was. In plain sight.

opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocra…

8/
Will BBC finally now cover it? When we broke the above, @amolrajan was media correspondent. He was also close to Lebedev, his former boss. As former editor of the @Independent, he'd had to publish his pro-Putin propaganda.
9/

standard.co.uk/comment/commen…
It's why MPs @BenPBradshaw & @RhonddaBryant & @IanCLucas are speaking out. Why I can't handle A Neil's hypocrisy. And why after seeing footage of mother & children, I wanted to set this down.

It's not peevishness. It's frustration & sadness & fear.

It's just all so late.
10/ Image

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More from @carolecadwalla

Oct 22
NEW: Russian interference case heads to Europe's 'Supreme Court'.

Ex-MPs - @CarolineLucas Ben Bradshaw & @AlynSmith - with @allthecitizens take landmark case to 'Grand Chamber'.

Case claims UK govt in breach of law for refusing to investigate foreign interference.
1/ Image
It's pretty extraordinary timing in a case that has been running since 2020 & publication of Russia Report.

As Gill pleads guilty to taking Russian bribes, why is UK government *still* refusing to investigate Russian interference??
2/

thenational.scot/news/25561454.…
Firstly, please - if you can - support this crowdfunder from
@allthecitizens

@LeighDay_Law
have spent years on this. The MPs are persevering even tho they've now left parliament. And whole subject couldn't be more urgent or more timely 🙏
3/

crowdfunder.co.uk/p/expose-the-t…
Read 4 tweets
Oct 18
NEW: Police knew a Kremlin spy ring recruited former leader of Reform Wales at least 3 years ago.

So why was Nathan Gill not charged till Feb this year?

Pls read part 2 of @thenerve_news special investigation into Nathan Gill. And please share!
1/ Image
Meet Nadia Sass.

This is the wife of the man who bribed Nathan Gill.

Today @thenerve_news reveals how she was a key part of the Kremlin operation that targeted not just Gill but at least 2 other MEPs and a member of the House of Lords.


2/ thenerve.news/p/nathan-gill-…Image
Meet the team.

Voloshyn - the man who bribed Nathan Gill - with his wife, Nadia Sass.

In part 2 of @thenerve_news’s investigation, we reveal their tag team approach.

But the UK police knew all this since at least 2022, the same year they fled to Belarus.

So what gives??
3/ Image
Read 8 tweets
Oct 1
REVEALED: Donald Trump has picked Tony Blair for central role in Gaza ‘peace plan’…

…but in our inaugural investigation for @thenerve_news, we reveal extensive previously unreported links to Israeli defence, media & tech. 🧵
1/

(Link in next tweet) Image
Tony Blair’s Institute has taken nearly half a billion $ from tech billionaire Larry Ellison.

His company Oracle is deeply embedded in Israeli govt & military.

Larry Ellison is a personal friend of Netanyahu.
2/
thenerve.news/p/tony-blair-i…
In Israel, Ellison’s Oracle partners with Rafael Systems whose weapons are being used in the Gaza genocide & implicated in the deaths of British aid workers.

But that’s just the start…
3/ Image
Read 13 tweets
Aug 25
The targeting & killing of journalists in Gaza & the failure of the media to show collective solidarity & to take collective action is…incomprehensible.

I feel a such profound sense of shame & failure. It’s not just the death of journalists. It’s the death of journalism.
1/
This is Mariam Abu Daka, one of 3 journalists killed in latest strike, warning that journalists are being deliberately targeted & killed.

‘The Israeli occupation targets journalists because they tell the truth’

She calls for urgent international protection. It did not come.
2/
It is not that there has not been efforts to mobilise a collective response by press freedom orgs, including @RSF_inter, but there has also been silence , denial & cowardice from the prestige legacy outlets.

There’s a reason trust in all media is plummeting.
3/
Read 4 tweets
Aug 23
Nick Clegg made a reported £100m from Facebook. And now the reputation laundering begins.

Congrats to him on this magnificent PR coup. Nicely played, Clegg. A glossy magazine profile AND extract in the paper that created the Facebook PR crisis that led to his hiring.

1/ Image
It’s an abject reminder of how mainstream outlets are played by Silicon Valley, by the cosy rules of access journalism & the genre framing of the celeb interview.

Clegg never submitted to a proper interview in his time at Facebook & now gets to spin & whitewash & conceal all while still under a FB NDA.
2/
I understand why this was commissioned. The need for a culturally relevant ‘name’. The fact that many people will ‘hate-read’ it. It will get traffic.

But it also reinforces an impression that so many people have that the media is broken. Clicks & traffic & holding power to account are such competing incentives.
3/
Read 4 tweets
Jul 24
Earlier this year, I lost my beloved job at my beloved Observer when the Guardian, in its great wisdom, gave the newspaper away to a podcast company...who promptly sacked me.

So, forgive my delight today, in being nominated for FIVE awards in the British Podcast Awards!!
1/ Image
Image
Huge kudos to super producers @RuthAbrahams5 of Sergei & the Westminster Spy Ring & @GeorgiaJCatt & @ByrnesyGsy for Stalked.

Plus the brilliant & brave Hannah Mossman-Moore & Sergei Cristo 👏 👏 👏. Both FEARLESS in completely different ways.

2/bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…
But mostly, thanks for listening... & in Sergei's case for crowdfunding it. Incredible to be nominated alongside all the big companies for our indie DIY affair. Thanks also to @peterjukes for galvanising & dramaturgy.

And to BBC Sounds for being so punchy in naming Hannah's stalker

3/
Read 4 tweets

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