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Carole Cadwalladr Profile picture
@carolecadwalla
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
If only there had been some sign.

11/ Image

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More from @carolecadwalla

Carole Cadwalladr Profile picture
Dec 23
Hahaha. I just got a call to ask if 'I'm going to the Indie'. To be clear, this is Lord Lebedev trolling me. But the serious point is that we just lost a liberal independent newspaper. With everything that entails for both journalists & readers.
1/
This week the Scott Trust sold the Observer brand to Tortoise Media. But they're using this to slash 70 core Guardian jobs in a sleight of hand. Observer journalists are *Guardian* journalists on *Guardian* contracts.
2/
But TUPE legislation legally allows the Guardian to transfer any part of its company out. So, 70 journalists on Guardian contracts have a choice to make this Christmas: go to a financially struggling start-up which may or may fail in a couple of years. Or take voluntary redundancy.
3/
Read 9 tweets
Carole Cadwalladr Profile picture
Dec 22
Well this is very exciting. My investigation into the Guardian’s new partner & the Observer’s new owner has just got the thumbs up from the Baron of Siberia.

I’m not entirely sure he’s familiar with my journalistic oeuvre, mind… Image
The Guardian is cancelling my contract after 19 years continuous employment with no pay-off so totes happy to go to the Indie to continue my investigation into Evgeny’s dad, the ex-KGB spy.

The UK media: so many fine choices.

theguardian.com/media/2019/nov…
To be clear, I’m not being singled out: fully one third of Guardian & Observer staff are on either zero hours or sham ‘freelance’ contracts. The Guardian issued notice on all these this week. If you’re an employment lawyer, feel free to slide into my DMs!
Read 4 tweets
Carole Cadwalladr Profile picture
Dec 20
This week the Guardian's owner, the Scott Trust, gifted the 233-year-old Observer to Tortoise Media.

This isn't just a dark day for journalism, it's a sign.

Meet the team.

This is Putin giving Tortoise's energy advisory board member an 'Order of Friendship' medal in 2017.
1/ Image
Independent news is under pressure across the world. The US is already crumbling: ABC settled with Trump. WaPo pre-obeyed.

This week Guardian lost 100 journalists & one of its arms. To understand what's lost, let's start with Putin's friend: Ivan Glasenberg, ex Glencore CEO.
2/
Glasenberg didn't just get a medal from Putin, he sat on the board of a Russian oil company, Rosneft, chaired by one of Putin's closest allies

And here he is: on Tortoise's energy advisory board, assembled by Tortoise, founder, owner & editor, James Harding.
3/ Image
Read 17 tweets
Carole Cadwalladr Profile picture
Dec 15
This is what the Observer team & I were doing between strikes. Please read it because it couldn’t be more relevant. I interview Asif Kapadia about his alarming new film, 2073, with its stark warning of where Trump, Musk & Farage are taking us..

theguardian.com/film/2024/dec/…
Kapadia won an Oscar for Amy, his heartbreaking film about Amy Winehouse. This is emotional too, a sci fi thriller with Samantha Morton set in the future made of fragments of the present. I tell the story of how I accidentally ended up in the film. But it’s so much more than that
It’s a chilling warning of what’s to come. The first film I’ve seen that attempts to unravel the technological crisis that underpins our democratic one. And I’m so pleased to be able to write about in Observer New Review, where I work with the best editors & designers in Britain including @JaneFerg who commissioned this & made it look beautiful. It’s where we’ve relentlessly covered the technoauthoritarian takeover that’s at the heart of Asif’s film…as part of the Guardian’s core journalistic output. While Asif’s film has journalists & journalism at its heart. I’m proud & flattered to be part of it but it also brings home what we stand to lose 😢Image
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Read 4 tweets
Carole Cadwalladr Profile picture
Nov 28
This is an incredible short film. If you want to understand why the Guardian & Observer journalists are fighting for our survival, please watch it. It gave me the chills.

Winnie Mandela on how the Observer helped save Mandela's life & the ANC leadership
What I find so fascinating film is the parallels to our own time. In the film, the son of legendary editor, David Astor, describes how it was witnessing fascism in Germany that made his father alive to the danger & evil of apartheid. A fact that informed his whole editorship.
And, here we come full circle, with the Observer under mortal threat. Just as apartheid bleeds again into fascism. Because it's 2 men, raised in apartheid SA, with their hands on the steering wheel of the world's superpower & coming authoritarian state: Elon Musk & Peter Thiel.
Read 6 tweets
Carole Cadwalladr Profile picture
Nov 25
If you’re a Guardian or Observer reader, please share this. The need for a strong, free & independent press couldn’t be greater. Yet, here it is. The billionaire Scott Trust is preparing to push a core part of the Guardian over the cliff into the hands of speculators & profiteers
If you haven’t heard about this, it’s probably because you’re a Guardian or Observer reader. The one place you won’t read about the turmoil. Or as @paulfwebster - the Observer’s editor until week ago calls it - the betrayal of everything we represent

broligarchy.substack.com/p/how-to-speak…Image
@paulfwebster Thank you to everyone who’s written. If you have views on the sale you can write to observer.readers@observer.co.uk. And/or or copy me in: Carole.Cadwalladr@theguardian.com. I think what makes us feel so sad & naive is that we had this ‘implicit trust’ too. Image
Read 4 tweets

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