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Former UKIP and Brexit Party MEP Nathan Gill was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday to ten and a half years in prison, after pleading guilty to taking bribes to take part in a pro-Russian influence campaign.

Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said the "corrosive damage to public life" caused by Gill's actions would be enduring.

"Your misconduct has ramifications far beyond personal honor which is now irretrievably damaged," she told Gill.

"It erodes public confidence in democracy when politicians succumb to financial inducement, the public can no longer rely on the veracity of political debate, which may be tainted by disinformation."

The sentence sets a clear legal benchmark - leaving the way clear for the UK Parliament to finally hold a much-needed inquiry into Kremlin meddling in domestic affairs.

In the UK, this inquiry cannot help but look at events surrounding the EU Referendum itself as a major intervention by the Kremlin.

Nathan Gill - one of Farage's closest confidantes in UKIP and the Brexit Party and a leading Reform UK figure in Wales - was convicted for eight counts of bribery, covering payments between December 2018 and July 2019 in return for statements and media interventions that reflected the Kremlin's line on Ukraine.

The bribes occurred during a turbulent period after Prime Minister Theresa May had called out Putin in Lord Mayor's Banquet speech in late 2017 - "we know what you're doing" - for election interference, information warfare, hybrid ops after the invasion of Eastern Ukraine and annexation of Crimea.

The Kremlin had responded by attempting to assassinate the Russian defector Sergei Skripal in Salisbury with the deadly nerve agent Novichok, which ended up killing a local resident Dawn Sturgess.

Putin's exasperation at the Brexit stalemate in Parliament dominates his end of year press conference in Moscow, during which he complains that the "will of the people" is not being enacted, and making an explicit comparison with Donald Trump's election the same year: They don't want to recognise [Trump's] victory… It's the same in Britain: Brexit happened, but nobody wants to implement it."

"It is in this context of Brexit deadlock and mounting Anglo-Russian tensions that Gill starts receiving WhatsApp messages and payments from Oleg Voloshyn.

EXCLUSIVE

'Thick as Thieves': Nathan Gill and Nigel Farage's Putin Problem

Far from being distant from the Reform UK Leader, insiders told Byline Times that the former MEP convicted of bribery was one of Farage's closest aides, while we reveal how Gill worked on the Kremlin's strategic plan to crush Ukrainian independence with 'Moscow's Man in Ukraine'

Peter Jukes

Oleg Voloshyn and the Medvedchuk Network

Gill's conviction creates a documented, criminal link between a British Eurosceptic MEP and a pro-Kremlin influence channel.

However, what is often under-reported is how closely Gill's paymaster Oleg (Oleh) Voloshyn was connected to the most important Russian power networks around Viktor Medvedchuk, Dmitry Medvedev and, ultimately, Vladimir Putin.

On 20 January 2022, the US Treasury sanctioned Oleg (Oleh) Voloshyn as one of four pro-Kremlin Ukrainians "engaged in Russian government-directed influence activities" against Ukraine, working with Russian intelligence-linked actors. He is named in the press release.

In May 2025, the EU Council added Voloshyn to its sanctions list for "Russian hybrid threats", alongside Viktor Medvedchuk and media executive Artem Marchevskyi, describing how Medvedchuk, "through his associates Artem Marchevskyi and Oleg Voloshin", used media platforms to disseminate Russian state narratives and interfere in European politics.

Apart from his media activities, Voloshyn was an MP pro Russian political party 'For Life' led by Viktor Medvedchuk.

Medvedchu...