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  1. 1d ago

    UK Pushes Bulgaria to Sell Lukoil Refinery to British-Linked Buyer Read Our Monthly Magazine And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system ENJOYING THIS ARTICLE? HELP US TO PRODUCE MORE Sanctions Waivers in Londo

    Support Our Mission Read Our Latest Edition BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen The UK Government is pushing its Bulgarian counterpart to sell the biggest refinery in the Balkans, owned by Russian energy giant Lukoil, to a buyer connected to London and Washington, according to several letters seen by Byline Times. As the US and the Kremlin discuss the future of Lukoil and its foreign assets, the UK Government has quietly sought to steer one of Lukoil's biggest EU assets into the hands of a British-linked buyer. With its vast business footprint, Lukoil has long been, and remains, a soft power tool for Russia. The potential sale of Lukoil's global assets has become a key part of the negotiations between American officials and Moscow to end Russia's war in Ukraine. The New York Times reported earlier this month that the two sides have discussed a proposed deal that would see a group of Middle Eastern businessmen, along with American investor Todd Boehly and an arm of the US Government, take control of the Russian oil giant's assets. One of those assets is the Bulgarian Neftochim refinery, which Lukoil has owned since 1999, making it a geopolitical tool in south-eastern Europe. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the EU has sought to crack down on imports of Russian oil. However, Bulgaria's Lukoil subsidiaries have received waivers that allow them to continue operating while the Bulgarian Government looks for a buyer for the refinery. Negotiations with Azerbaijan's state-owned oil company SOCAR have been ongoing for several years, and Kazakhstan's oil and gas company KazMunayGas has also expressed interest at various points. Receive the monthly Byline Times newspaper and help to support fearless, independent journalism that breaks stories, shapes the agenda and holds power to account. SUBSCRIBE TODAY We're not funded by a billionaire oligarch or an offshore hedge-fund. We rely on our readers to fund our journalism. If you like what we do, please subscribe. The UK Treasury's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) has granted a waiver to Lukoil's Bulgarian subsidiaries that continues to allow them to operate while negotiations proceed. However, the waiver is set to expire on 29 October, and the OFSI has not yet indicated whether it will issue another extension. A spokesperson for His Majesty's Treasury said: "The UK and our international partners have implemented the most severe package of sanctions ever imposed on a major economy and they're working. This licence comes with strict conditions that stop any money getting to the Russian parent firm – ensuring Lukoil's profits from these markets eventually cease." Meanwhile, the Trump administration has made several recent decisions that allow the sale of Russian oil to continue. On 9 October, Washington announced a deal under which the US will buy 300,000 tonnes of diesel fuel from Russia, as fuel prices have surged following the US war in Iran. Then on 15 October, the US Treasury Department announced a six-month extension of the waiver on Lukoil sanctions, including the Bulgarian entities, until 24 April 2027. In June, Nathaniel Copsey, the British ambassador to Bulgaria, wrote to Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev encouraging him to find a professional management team to help run Lukoil's business in the country. The team would help to secure the largest amount of crude oil from BP at the lowest possible price. The letter also noted that Southbank, a little-known British energy investment firm led by a former Shell executive, would be involved in a deal with BP. It is unclear whether the Bulgarian Government has engaged further with BP on a possible deal. In August, Minister of State Stephen Doughty wrote to the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that sanctions-compliant safeguards should be put in place to prevent the continued sale of Russian crude. He added that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office would like B...

  2. 1d ago

    Reform UK Named 'Authoritarian-Leaning' Party in Index of Far-Right Cooperation Across Europe Read Our Monthly Magazine And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system ENJOYING THIS ARTICLE? HELP US TO PRODUCE MORE

    Support Our Mission Read Our Latest Edition BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen Reform UK has been branded "authoritarian-leaning" in a report by an international non-profit group that includes renowned academics, a former US General, and ex-diplomats on its advisory board. A paper from Action for Democracy, the 'Authoritarian Collaboration Index', finds authoritarian-leaning parties in European democracies – including Reform UK and France's National Rally – are increasingly coordinating across borders on policy in advance of winning office. The report, which is underpinned by a live dataset created from 600 million articles, analyses, press releases, communiqués, conference proceedings, and investigative reporting in over 100 languages, notes that ties are growing stronger between Nigel Farage's Reform UK and Marine Le Pen's National Rally. It also points to alleged growing cooperation between the far-right Alternative for Germany and the Russian state. Far-right parties in Europe are increasingly formalising bilateral relationships as a "mechanism of legitimising one another" on a national level, the NGO finds. Receive the monthly Byline Times newspaper and help to support fearless, independent journalism that breaks stories, shapes the agenda and holds power to account. SUBSCRIBE TODAY We're not funded by a billionaire oligarch or an offshore hedge-fund. We rely on our readers to fund our journalism. If you like what we do, please subscribe. The report specifically looks at the formalisation of bilateral relations between Nigel Farage's Reform UK party and Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN, in its French initials) party in France. It notes that, over the past six months, the relationship between the two parties has been "used as a vehicle to lend legitimacy to one another" as "governments-in-waiting" – with the policy commitments often mattering less than the validation they confer. Reform UK's September 2026 conference in Birmingham – which Byline Times was barred from – saw the first formal pact between Reform and a foreign party recorded in the AuthCollab Index. The agreed text of the so-called 'entente cordiale' between the two parties also affirms that neither party will allow international law – including the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – to "constrain" sovereignty. Both Reform and France's National Rally have so far been cautious about exploring formal or informal relations with Alice Weidel's Alternative for Germany (AfD). That's despite Reform itself having previously shunned relations with what was then called the Front National. Commenting on the findings of Action for Democracy's new report, Domonkos D. Kovacs, project lead of the AuthCollab Index and director for advocacy at Action for Democracy, said: "Reform UK, France's National Rally and Germany's AfD are increasing their collaborations and presence." "Far-right parties in Europe, in particular, are deepening their ties with illiberal partners and aligning their policy positions in anticipation of securing office. SIGN UP TO EMAIL UPDATES "Although these actors have not yet formed a single bloc, their growing connections are creating channels through which authoritarian ideas, tactics and narratives can cross borders, gain legitimacy and reach new audiences." Kovacs added that party alliances – including Reform's alliance with RN – are being utilised to signal mutual support. These partnerships are "embedding cooperation in institutions and practices spanning security, media, technology and policing." "Together these ties are creating a more connected ecosystem, and placing pressure on democratic norms." Despite Reform UK's apparent refusal to praise Germany's AfD, the authors name Reform UK alongside the AfD as an authoritarian-leaning party operating in a democracy. This far-right 'International' saw Nigel Farage and RN's President Jordan Bardella (a contender to be France's next Prime Minister) sign a memor...

  3. 1d ago

    UAE's Candidate for Top UN Post, Lana Nusseibeh, Lobbied for Epstein Associate Read Our Monthly Magazine And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system Jeffrey Epstein Met Privately with Bill Gates and Peter Thiel

    Support Our Mission Read Our Latest Edition BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen Every candidate for UN Secretary-General should be vetted against archives such as the Epstein files, the millions of pages of documents on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein released by the US Department of Justice. A review of this kind would reveal how ties to controversial figures begin, how they evolve and what they were meant to secure. The Epstein files expose a disturbing cross-section of the global elite – from chief executives, presidents and prime ministers to royals, academics, celebrities and spiritual leaders – and, despite extensive redactions, lay bare the moral compromises and networks of influence at the highest levels. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) nominated Lana Nusseibeh, a minister of state and former ambassador to the UN, on 21 October to succeed the outgoing UN Secretary-General, António Guterres. The Epstein files place her in two episodes involving Epstein and his associates. In 2010, she was asked to add Epstein to the guest list of an Abu Dhabi forum. In 2019, she wrote to the president of New York University (NYU) supporting the application of Edward, the son of Terje Rød-Larsen, a Norwegian diplomat and peace-process figure. Documents suggest Epstein met with Gates at the convicted child sex offender's Manhattan home, alongside Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel and right-wing media mogul Mortimer Zuckerman Nafeez Ahmed The files mention Nusseibeh herself relatively rarely. It is the people involved and the relationships the documents record which bear significance. On 27 October 2010, she was sent an email with the subject line "Jeffrey Epstein" about the Sir Bani Yas Forum in Abu Dhabi, the UAE Foreign Ministry's private annual gathering of foreign ministers and policymakers. Pim Valdre wrote: Dear Lana, I was informed yesterday that Terje [Rød-Larsen], after discussions with HH, has invited Mr. Jeffrey Epstein, Chairman of Financial Trust Company, Inc to participate a business participant at Sir Bani Yas. With apologies for this last minute addition, Terje would like that Mr. Epstein be added to the list of participants. […] Terje sends his best regards and thanks for your understanding. The email states that Rød-Larsen invited Epstein after discussions with a senior Emirati official and wanted him added to the list of participants. Epstein had been jailed for soliciting underage sex in 2008. Any vetting of participants worth the name would have flagged him. Receive the monthly Byline Times newspaper and help to support fearless, independent journalism that breaks stories, shapes the agenda and holds power to account. SUBSCRIBE TODAY We're not funded by a billionaire oligarch or an offshore hedge-fund. We rely on our readers to fund our journalism. If you like what we do, please subscribe. Rød-Larsen's messages to Epstein show how close the two men were. On 27 March 2011, he thanked Epstein for hosting him, his wife and their children: Thanks, Jeff, for a great day on a wonderful and totally unique place! We all loved it. Emma and Edward are ecstatic (think the four wheel drives made the strongest impression!). My mind is working on further ideas for creative development. Hope to be back soon! Warmest, Terje Years after Epstein's conviction, on 1 January 2017, Rød-Larsen wrote: Dear Jeff, A very happy New Year to you! With deep felt gratitude for everything you have done – and been – for me in the year that passed. You are my best friend, and a super rare, thoroughly good human being. Thanks for being you! Warmest, Terje The second episode came more than eight years after the forum email. On 9 January 2019, Nusseibeh, still the UAE's ambassador to the UN, emailed Rød-Larsen and his wife, Mona Juul, offering to contact NYU president Andrew Hamilton on behalf of their son, Edward: This must be the time of the year when everybody is activating whatever contacts they have in u...

  4. 2d ago

    Rupert Lowe and Restore Britain Figures Listed as Backers of Europe-Wide Far-Right 'Remigration' Campaign Read Our Monthly Magazine And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system ENJOYING THIS ARTICLE? HELP US TO

    Support Our Mission Read Our Latest Edition BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen Rupert Lowe and senior Restore Britain figures are listed as backers of a pan-European far-right initiative to introduce remigration, a policy of mass expulsions which anti-racism campaigners say amounts to ethnic cleansing. Prominent Restore Britain activists are organisers of the British wing of the Save Europe Act (SEA) initiative, acting as a bridgehead in Britain to the European extreme right identitarian movement. The International Group chat of the SEA, which all volunteers join automatically, contains posts endorsing antisemitic conspiracy theories, Islamophobic slurs and discussions about intimidating ethnic minorities. The Save Europe Act is an initiative to get European governments to agree to a moratorium on all non-Western or non-European immigration and a commitment to encourage "non-European" immigrants to leave. It was created by the Austrian white nationalist activist and former neo-Nazi Martin Sellner, and the Dutch far-right political commentator, Eva Vlaardingerbroek. Restore Britain's leadership has endorsed the Act, according to the website of the initiative, which lists Rupert Lowe as a supporter. The SEA also claims Charlie Downes, a Restore Britain spokesperson, and several other senior Restore figures as supporters. Beyond the website displaying the act's proposals, the project aims to bring together white nationalists across Europe to pressure governments to adopt remigration, a policy anti-racism campaigners say amounts to ethnic cleansing of non-white people. Byline Times analysed the membership of Eurocom, the SEA's online platform in which activists coordinate actions and discuss politics. Prominent Restore Britain activists are organisers for the British wing of the movement whose European membership includes Holocaust deniers, white nationalists and the leaders of mini-groups accused of violence, among its members. The British "volunteer lounge chatroom" is organised by the YouTuber Mr H reviews, a prominent Restore Britain activist who goes by Nate H in the chatroom. Receive the monthly Byline Times newspaper and help to support fearless, independent journalism that breaks stories, shapes the agenda and holds power to account. SUBSCRIBE TODAY We're not funded by a billionaire oligarch or an offshore hedge-fund. We rely on our readers to fund our journalism. If you like what we do, please subscribe. Several other accounts created within the forum match the names of prominent supporters of Restore Britain. Byline Times found prominent members of Restore Britain, including Lucy White, a Restore Britain activist who is a public representative of the SEA and Jonathan Wong, a YouTuber with the anti-woke outlet Vox Populi, who claims to have joined Restore Britain's "Cromwell Club", meaning he has donated at least £2,500 to the party. White said: "I have no interest in the Byline Times writing a hit piece. I only care about saving my country and saving Europe. Thanks and goodbye." Sellner, who is in the international chat room with every user, has described the initiative as "metapolitical", a term popularised on the far right by the identitarian, French philosopher Alain de Benoist, meaning actions that change the culture in which politics occurs in order to drag politics in a given direction. The goal of the SEA is to normalise the idea of remigration and get governments to commit to the programme. In a webinar describing the initiative's goals, Sellner said that the initiative was linking identitarian activists, "people like me – who are shunned by mainstream media, can't travel freely, can't get a bank account – with high-profile and high-ranking politicians. So this is really crossing several firewalls. National firewalls and institutional firewalls". Through the SEA, Restore Britain appears to be acting as a bridgehead in Britain to identitarian, far-right movements in Europe, which...

  5. 2d ago

    Local Reform Deputy Accused of Misleading Councillors Over Poll Used to Defend £150,000 Security Patrols Near Asylum Site Read Our Monthly Magazine And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system ENJOYING THIS ART

    Support Our Mission Read Our Latest Edition BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen A polling firm has distanced itself from a survey a senior Reform UK councillor used to defend private security patrols in Essex towns visited by asylum seekers living at the local Wethersfield base. Cllr Russell Quirk, deputy leader of Reform-run Essex County Council (ECC), cited a Find Out Now poll when justifying Operation Vanguard, the county's £150,000 trial of private patrols in Braintree, Chelmsford and Colchester. He was facing questions by Colchester City Council's crime and disorder committee on 20 October. However, Byline Times has now found the poll asked about police, not security guards, was commissioned through the councillor's own PR company, and had barely half the participants he claimed. The same meeting heard that Cllr Quirk was the one who initially suggested the firm that won the contract, My Local Bobby. It was then awarded the work without competition. Since 14 September, six My Local Bobby guards in red vests have patrolled the three town and city centres from 10am to 6pm, seven days a week, in a three-month trial funded by up to £150,000 from council reserves. Cllr Quirk told the committee the poll was "commissioned by the Essex County Council Reform Administration as councillors…It didn't go through Essex County Council as such". He claimed the survey was commissioned "further to our visit" to the Wethersfield asylum site on 28 August. The council deputy leader said pollsters had surveyed 1,000 people who were "properly represented", with "no loaded dice". "We simply asked: are you concerned?" he claimed, adding there was "no contrived question". Receive the monthly Byline Times newspaper and help to support fearless, independent journalism that breaks stories, shapes the agenda and holds power to account. SUBSCRIBE TODAY We're not funded by a billionaire oligarch or an offshore hedge-fund. We rely on our readers to fund our journalism. If you like what we do, please subscribe. Over 80% were concerned, he said, and 88% answered yes to: "Would you like to see a greater security presence?" He described the survey as a "backup to the reality" of "mountains" of social media disquiet. But when asked for the questionnaire and sample criteria, he told councillors: "[On] certain things you're just going to have to take our word for it." Byline Times then approached the pollster, Find Out Now. The pollster's response came as something of a surprise. The firm said just 562 people took part in the survey, well short of the 1,000 claimed, and that no weighting was applied, so the survey was "not fully representative". Fieldwork began on 25 August, three days before the visit which Cllr Quirk said prompted it, and closed on 11 September. Respondents were not asked whether they wanted more security. They answered three yes/no questions: 1. "Are you concerned about hundreds of asylum seekers being bussed daily into Braintree, Colchester and Chelmsford from Wethersfield?" 69% said yes (not "over 80%" as Cllr Quirk told the meeting). 2. "Is there sufficient police presence in these town and city centres?" 81% said no. 3. "Would you like to see an increase in police presence?" 85% said yes. The question Cllr Quirk described to councillors as being about a "greater security presence" actually asked about the police. My Local Bobby's guards are not police officers and have no more powers than members of the public. SIGN UP TO EMAIL UPDATES Find Out Now told this outlet the poll was run through ProperPR Ltd, a property PR firm. Cllr Quirk is a director and 63% shareholder, an interest which he has declared on his council registers. He declined to comment for this article. Find Out Now's founder and chief executive, Chris Holbrook, told Byline Times: "The survey was run as part of the ongoing retainer we have with ProperPR, a property industry PR firm owned and run by Russell Quirk. "We were not aware that he ...

  6. 3d ago

    Budget 2026: John Healey's 'Do No Harm' Strategy Puts the UK Economy on Borrowed Time Read Our Monthly Magazine And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system Andy Burnham's 'Breathing Space' Budget Leaves Britain

    Support Our Mission Read Our Latest Edition BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen There are several ways to think about John Healey's very boring budget. The first is that his "do no harm" approach was exactly the right way forward for a new government trying to navigate an extremely challenging fiscal situation against a highly volatile international backdrop. The long list of mostly footling measures, amounting to barely £8 billion of extra spending funded by a tax raid on banks, was designed to give some "breathing space" to a country grappling with intense cost of living pressures. It was certainly a welcome contrast to the exhausting drama that surrounded the budgets of Healey's predecessor. This Budget also bought time for the Government to bring forward more radical policies in the coming months when it presents its 10-year plan and spending review. At least, that is what the government would like us to believe. Then there is the view held by much of the economics community, which would have preferred to see the Chancellor use the political capital of his first budget to take much bolder action to rein in an expected deficit of £133 billion this year, equivalent to 4.2 percent of GDP. They worry that with debt to GDP at 92%, growth next year forecast at just one per cent, inflation above three per cent and the government paying 5.33% on 10-year gilts, it will eventually need to run substantial budget surpluses before interest costs, just to stabilise the debt. Yet the Government's fiscal plans defer big spending cuts until 2028, the year before the next election is due, when most departments other than defence and health face real-terms cuts of 2.6% on paper. However, most observers consider cuts on such a scale politically implausible. The huge conflict between the Prime Minister's bold promise to rip up '40 years of neoliberalism' and the modest Budget measures announced by his Chancellor, will ultimately prove difficult to sustain, argues Adam Bienkov Adam Bienkov That points to the third view, held by many political commentators and identified by Kemi Badenoch in her budget response: that this budget was simply a holding exercise for a Prime Minister who plans to call an early election next year. On this analysis, Andy Burnham would seek a mandate for the tough fiscal choices needed to rein in the debt and deficit while meeting his pledges to raise defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035 (and to three per cent by 2030, as confirmed by Healey) and to introduce a new National Care Service, unconstrained by Labour's past manifesto commitments. Of course, this would require Burnham to win an argument for higher taxes against opposition parties that will claim to have found the magic money tree, or say they can make the deficit disappear with fantasy cuts to waste and red tape. Personally, I would have preferred to see bolder action to rein in debt, rather than letting borrowing rise relative to previous plans so that headroom fell from £23 billion to £15 billion. After all, as Healey boasted, the UK economy was the fastest-growing in the G7 in the first half of this year, so there is no need right now for a fiscal stimulus. Plus, any move to bring down debt could have led to a faster fall in gilt yields, which would have delivered its own welcome boost to the economy as lower yields fed through to borrowing rates. Nor is there any reason to expect conditions to ease markedly over the next year, if that was the Chancellor's Micawberish bet. Much of the recent rise in global borrowing costs is being driven by the vast demand for capital to fund the AI build-out, which shows no signs of stalling. Nonetheless, the initial market reaction suggests investors are willing to give Burnham and Healey the benefit of the doubt. Receive the monthly Byline Times newspaper and help to support fearless, independent journalism that breaks stories, shapes the agenda and holds power to account. SUBSCRIBE TOD...

  7. 3d ago

    Andy Burnham's 'Breathing Space' Budget Leaves Britain Holding Its Breath Read Our Monthly Magazine And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system Three Labour Peers Spoke at a Festival Sponsored by a Reform Mega-

    Support Our Mission Read Our Latest Edition BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen Andy Burnham has repeatedly insisted that he is on a mission to "end 40 years of neoliberalism". However, all the evidence from his Chancellor's first budget suggests that this mission will be a very long time coming, if it comes at all. Absent from John Healey's address on Wednesday was any immediate plan to radically reshape the economy, let alone rip up the central economic philosophy which has dominated the past half a century. In its place was a series of relatively modest measures to provide "breathing space" from the crushing global economic forces that have followed in the wake of Trump's Iran war. Under Healey's plans, gas standing charges will be scrapped, £100 energy payments will be distributed to 80% of households and self-employed dads will be given the right to parental leave. Homeless people will also be helped, with hundreds of millions of pounds in additional funding to get people off the street. In order to pay for this, taxes will be raised on banks, with gambling and vape shops removed from the tax rate relief handed to other high street retailers. However, absent from Healey's speech was the previously trailed plans to raise capital gains tax in line with income, with the tax rise on banks also only made temporary, with Healey telling MPs that "I want to say directly to our banks, I celebrate, and I am grateful for the role that you play." Of course, at a time of soaring prices triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, every little helps. Yet the help offered by Healey today was undoubtedly little. According to the Government's own Office for Budget Responsibility, living standards will continue to fall over the coming years, compared to previous forecasts, with the nation's material well-being only forecast to rise to just two percentage points above pre-pandemic levels by the start of the next decade. Economic growth, which Burnham has promised to restore "in every postcode" in the UK, is also forecast to remain at anaemic levels for many years to come. There may be good reasons for the modest nature of Healey's plans. Public sector debt and the tax burden remain at record highs and the ongoing global uncertainty caused by the Iran and Ukraine wars means that the Chancellor has much less room for manoeuvre than his predecessors. Yet anyone looking for a bold plan to rip up four decades of neoliberalism, or even for a signal of when that might come, will have been disappointed. As the prominent Burnham supporter Neal Lawson, of the think tank Compass, put it in the wake of Healey's statement: "The immediate essentials relief for people up and down the country has to be welcomed. But the lack of any tangible long-term vision here is worrying…" "The vision must now come in the 10-Year Plan because it certainly wasn't here. No one could discern from the Chancellor's speech what kind of economy he was building for what kind of vision for society." Other measures announced today could prove to backfire. Few will shed a tear for Britain's landlords, who face a tax rise under today's budget. Yet according to the OBR, the planned rise is likely to simply be passed onto renters, actively taking away the "breathing space" Healey promised to provide. There were also signs of further backtracking on the Government's green commitments, with Healey saying he wants to speed up the construction of polluting gas-powered data centres to help Big Tech companies, whilst insisting the Government will "only buy and build new [clean energy] projects when they lower bills". Responding to Healey's statement, the Green Party leader Zack Polanski said the Chancellor had "refused to fix the foundations of the economy – and instead offered cosmetic tweaks that will do nothing to buffer people against the fossil fuel rollercoaster." EXCLUSIVE Labour MP Phil Brickell says "no respectable person" should be associated...

  8. 5d ago

    The Conviction of Estonia's 'Lord Haw-Haw' Links Russian Intelligence to Moscow's Interference in Brexit Read Our Monthly Magazine And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system Saying the 'Unsayable': Russian Int

    Support Our Mission Read Our Latest Edition BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen The role of Sergey Nalobin, the senior 'diplomat' at the centre of my story about Russian political interference in the run up to the EU Referendum, was among the key evidence that clinched the successful criminal prosecution in a Russian interference case by Estonian law enforcement. The British authorities repeatedly refused to investigate Russian interference in the Brexit campaign and the UK's broader politics. However, court proceedings have revealed that Nalobin, who was looking for a way to channel money into the Conservative Party in the early 2010s, had also been at the centre of a political interference campaign in Estonia. Moreover, he was identified as an intelligence officer by Ukrainian and Estonian sources. Oleg Bessedin, arguably the country's most influential Russian propagandist, was sentenced to seven years in prison for non-violent activities against Estonia and breaches of international sanctions. Perhaps the most infamous propagandist that comes to mind in the British historical context is William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw"), who broadcast Nazi propaganda from Germany to UK audiences during the Second World War. According to Delfi, an Estonian investigative news outlet, Bessedin operated Estonia's most influential Russian-language propaganda platform, supported by individuals linked to Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and Federal Security Service (FSB). Disinformation is a key element of Russian political interference operations, alongside covert political finance and cyber. In line with established practice, Russian intelligence did not pay Bessedin directly. Given that he did not have access to classified information, there was no need for a designated handler, either. Instead, the Russians helped Bessedin with setting up a large distribution for his YouTube channel. For example, in 2024, his two interviews pushing a well-timed Kremlin narrative about the apparent superiority of the Russian Oreshnik ballistic missile clocked 2.8 million and 2.4 million views respectively on the platform. The Civic Resilience Initiative with support from Google found that 34 of the 50 most-engaged Kremlin-aligned posts it monitored in Estonia came from Bessedin's YouTube channel. The set up paid off: YouTube provided him with a monthly income of EUR 5,000 – 7,000. He supplemented that with secretly selling the rights to two of his documentaries to RT, a Russian government propaganda broadcaster sanctioned on both sides of the Atlantic. About €77,000 of Bessedin's criminal proceeds were confiscated in the end. The police also seized large amounts in Russian roubles at his home, the origin of which was unexplained. Andy Burnham has broken a decade of establishment silence over Putin's plan to get Britain out of the EU. Peter Jukes reports Peter Jukes What is interesting from the British perspective is that the Estonians gave particular weight in the evidence to the fact that Bessedin was supported in his activities by none other than Sergey Nalobin, the same Russian diplomat who was at the heart of Russian political interference operations in London when David Cameron was at No 10. Chief Public Prosecutor Taavi Pern told the court how Nalobin secured high-profile and very hard-to-get interviewees for his programmes. There was extensive correspondence between the two, with Bessedin asking Nalobin for guidance in his activities, for contacts and even personal favours, such as helping to obtain a place for his wife's daughter at a university in Russia. It was also Nalobin who facilitated "technical" help from ANO Dialog, an organisation which was linked to Russia's Doppelganger (Twin) disinformation operation by the US authorities. Reporting to the Russian Presidential Administration, Dialog is at the heart of Putin's propaganda and political interference effort and is sanctioned by the European Union. I have...

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The latest articles from Byline Times converted to audio for easy listening

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  • Channel
    Byline Audio
  • Creator
    Unknown
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Clean

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