Sergei & the Westminster Spy Ring

As this tale of spies and influence at the heart of Westminster draws to a close, Carole, Peter and Sergei reflect on the story they’ve fought to uncover for so long. Meanwhile, The Guardian’s international correspondent Luke Harding shares his analysis of what Russian diplomats were up to in London. From the world of shadows, the former head of Estonian intelligence service, Rainer Saks, offers his perspective about the highly sociable “diplomat” Sergey Nalobin, and the whole Russian secret operation to interfere in the British democratic process.

And we talk about what we can do to learn the whole truth. The highly important “impact case” at the ECHR brought by The Citizens and MPs to force a proper enquiry into the Russian interference in British politics. Our legal team shares their views about the urgency for this action. 

Plus Carole and Peter have one more call to make…

A Project Citizen production

To find out more about the story and issues it raises visit www.the-citizens.com

Presented by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes

Written by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes with Ruth Abrahams

Producer and Sound Design: Ruth Abrahams

Studio Producer: Sean Byrne Roberts

Location Producers: Sheridan Flynn and Manasa Narayanan 

Original Music: Phil Channell

Mixed: Nigel Appleton

Sergei continues to confront the West’s complacency towards oppressive regimes. Please consider supporting his self-funded research into how hundreds of European sustainable funds were misused to invest in the Putin regime just before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine: gofund.me/4358bf68

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On reading the Russia Report finally published by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) in the Summer of 2020, Sergei realises the significance of his experience with the Russian diplomat and MI5 eight years previously.

He writes to his old friend Dr Julian Lewis MP, who becomes the Chairman of the Committee. The advice comes back from Westminster, which sends Sergei round the circles of police and judicial authorities, which, in the end, yields nothing. But not without some odd footwork by the authorities, including redacted police reports and delayed responses. 

As Sergei’s case is declared “out of time”, it seems that the western complacency with Putin’s active measures is about to bear a heavy price. After months of building up a heavy military presence on the Russian Ukrainian border, Putin strikes…

A Project Citizen & The Citizens production

To find out more about the story and issues it raises visit www.the-citizens.com

Presented by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes

Written by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes

Producer and Sound Design: Ruth Abrahams

Studio Producer: Sean Byrne Roberts

Location Producers: Sheridan Flynn and Manasa Narayanan

Original Music: Phil Channell

Mixed: Nigel Appleton

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Carole, Peter and Sergei are closing on the core of the Russian Westminster plot as they untangle the secrets around the parliamentary Russia Report. With Dominic Grieve, the former Conservative Attorney General and chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament, which produced the groundbreaking report, and two of the Committee’s key witnesses, Edward Lucas and Christopher Steele, they discover almost everything we need to know to answer some of the big questions about the significance of the Russia covert interference operation in the British democratic processes. And about the lengths to which the powers that be, for their own political reasons, went to cover this whole thing up from the watchful eye of the British electorate.

In this episode you also hear the voices of journalist and author, Catherine Belton, writer and historian, Anne Applebaum and former Intelligence and Security Committee members Stewart Hosie and Kevan Jones.

Sergei and the Westminster Spy Ring will be taking a short break and will return soon to conclude this season.

A Project Citizen production

To find out more about the story and issues it raises visit www.the-citizens.com

Presented by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes

Written by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes

Producer and Sound Design: Ruth Abrahams

Studio Producer: Sean Byrne Roberts

Location Producers: Sheridan Flynn and Manasa Narayanan

Original Music: Phil Channell

Mixed: Nigel Appleton

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you’re enjoying Sergei & the Westminster Spy Ring, we think you’ll love The Spy Who, from Wondery. In this special episode, we’ll play you an extract from their season: The Spy Who Putin Poisoned. When the USSR falls apart, GRU officer Sergei Skripal finds himself adrift in the new Russia, having never asked for the country's new democracy. So when he meets a shadowy wine dealer, he leaps at the chance to make some money, without a clue how the deal would lead him to Salisbury.

Listen to The Spy Who ad-free on Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/the-spy-who now.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Relations between Russia and the Conservative-led British government are being pushed to the brink. In Salisbury, former KGB officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia are found unconscious on a park bench, poisoned by the radioactive nerve agent Novichok. The attack sends shockwaves through Britain and Europe, while the suspected perpetrators are flaunted in a prime time TV interview on Russia Today, convincing Sergei Cristo that his former homeland is now run like a mafia state.

NATO countries respond by expelling swathes of Russian diplomats and spies. So why does the UK’s foreign secretary shake off his security detail to party in Italy with his pal, the Russian oligarch Evgeny Lebedev, just one month after this critical incident?

Tensions are rising and a demand for answers about Russian interference in British politics growing. But it seems that powerful forces are determined to keep the truth buried.

Episodes drop weekly!

A Project Citizen production

To find out more about the story and issues it raises visit www.the-citizens.com

Presented by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes

Written by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes

Producer and Sound Design: Ruth Abrahams

Studio Producer: Sean Byrne Roberts

Location Producers: Sheridan Flynn and Manasa Narayanan

Original Music: Phil Channell

Mixed: Nigel Appleton

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Westminster is caught up in bitter Brexit debates and Trump’s first term in office is getting mired in investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Suddenly the two worlds collide in the form of an enigmatic Maltese professor, revealed in the unsealing of FBI indictments. 

Sergei is disgusted with the atmosphere pervading British politics. Meanwhile, new trolling tactics of the Russian embassy, echoed by some on UK political fringes, takes a threatening turn, directed not least against Carole and then UK Prime Minister, Theresa May.

How much does the foreign secretary at the time, Boris Johnson, know about suspected Russian interference? Not a sausage it turns out.

Episodes drop weekly!

A Project Citizen production

To find out more about the story and issues it raises visit www.the-citizens.com

Presented by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes

Written by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes

Producer and Sound Design: Ruth Abrahams

Studio Producer: Sean Byrne Roberts

Location Producers: Sheridan Flynn and Manasa Narayanan 

Original Music: Phil Channell

Mixed: Nigel Appleton

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sergei Cristo circles back to his first meeting with Nalobin at the Carlton Club in London and the newspaper article that had got the Russian diplomat’s attention. How could this story about a suspected Russian honey pot be linked to activity around the Russian Embassy during the Brexit campaign? And what is a mysterious man introducing himself as Oleg doing at the UKIP party conference at Doncaster race track in 2015? It’s time to tie up some loose ends. 

Episodes drop weekly!

A Project Citizen production

To find out more about the story and issues it raises visit www.the-citizens.com

Presented by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes

Written by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes

Producer and Sound Design: Ruth Abrahams

Studio Producer: Sean Byrne Roberts

Location Producers: Sheridan Flynn and Manasa Narayanan

Original Music: Phil Channell

Mixed: Nigel Appleton

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s now 2013 and a new organisation has risen from the ashes of the disgraced Conservative Friends of Russia - the Westminster Russia Forum. This time the launch is on the House of Commons riverside terrace. Russia Today is booming, experimenting with new ways to reach new audiences through packaging up content for online viral hits. Its tagline is question everything. Marina Litvinenko is dismayed when the government rejects her call for a public inquiry into her husband’s fatal poisoning. And in Ukraine, there’s an uprising in Kyiv - the Maidan - a fight to defend a pro-EU, pro-Western future. Months later Russia invades Crimea. Meanwhile, the chatty Russian diplomat who first met Sergei at the Carlton club is socialising across the capital. Has anyone paid any attention to the warnings of Sergei Cristo?

Episodes drop weekly!

A Project Citizen production

To find out more about the story and issues it raises visit www.the-citizens.com

Presented by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes

Written by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes

Producer and Sound Design: Ruth Abrahams

Studio Producer: Sean Byrne Roberts

Location Producers: Sheridan Flynn and Manasa Narayanan

Original Music: Phil Channell

Mixed: Nigel Appleton

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With seemingly little interest from MI5 in Sergei’s concerns around what he believes to be an illegal offer of Russian funds into the Conservative party, he looks for other ways to raise the alarm. And after the success of the Conservative Friends of Russia launch party, the Russian embassy opens up a new charm offensive, inviting bloggers and social media specialists to ‘digital barbecues’ within their sumptuous surroundings. Insider, Steve Lacey, takes us on his journey down the rabbit hole of Russian propaganda.

Episodes drop weekly!

A Project Citizen & The Citizens production

To find out more about the story and issues it raises visit www.the-citizens.com

Presented by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes

Written by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes with Ruth Abrahams

Producer and Sound Design: Ruth Abrahams

Studio Producer: Sean Byrne Roberts

Location Producers: Sheridan Flynn and Manasa Narayanan

Original Music: Phil Channell

Mixed: Nigel Appleton

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sergei Cristo starts making enquiries into the mysterious new diplomat whose conversation over tea at the Carlton club has raised red flags. And what his friends, Marina Litvinenko and Oleg Gordievsky, tell him only increases his anxiety. Meanwhile, a new organisation launches - Conservative Friends of Russia - at the gardens of the Russian Embassy in London, just days after members of Pussy Riot are imprisoned in Moscow.

Episodes drop weekly!

A Project Citizen & The Citizens production.

To find out more about the story and issues it raises visit www.the-citizens.com

Presented by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes

Written by: Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes with Ruth Abrahams

Producer and Sound Design: Ruth Abrahams

Studio Producer: Sean Byrne Roberts

Location Producers: Sheridan Flynn and Manasa Narayanan

Original Music: Phil Channell

Mixed: Nigel Appleton

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.