SubscriptionsColumn / Investigation: Crypto Politics
Dark money, lobbying, regulatory capture, state institutions hollowed by donor factions, foreign interference, and the financialisation of political power.
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Miami Fashion Designer Awarded £148 Million in PPE Contracts
In the first of a new series of procurement exposés, Sam Bright reveals how a Florida-based fashion brand founder has been awarded huge deals by Boris Johnson’s Government
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Nagorno-Karabakh Ceasefire: A Hasty Russian Holding Tactic?
Kseniya Kirillova reports on how the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan shows Putin’s weaknesses in the ‘Post Soviet’ space
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Business Associate of Government ‘PPE Tsar’ Awarded £300,000 Contract
The man leading the Government’s personal protective equipment (PPE) procurement has seen an internal contract handed to a close business associate
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Is the Government in Breach of its Own Anti-Corruption Strategy?
Sam Bright reports on how Boris Johnson’s Government appears to be violating several elements of its own anti-corruption agenda
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£2.3 Billion of PPE Supplied by Company With Just 25 Employees
The company has supplied a fifth of the Government’s PPE stockpile, yet virtually none of the contracts are publicly available, reports Sam Bright
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Government Dodges PPE Procurement Scrutiny
Boris Johnson’s administration is stubbornly refusing to answer questions from MPs about the PPE procurement scandal, reports Sam Bright
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£70 Million Government PPE Contract for Small ‘Luxury Packaging’ Firm
The Government awarded the deal to a firm with just £46,000 in the bank, reports Sam Bright
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Kyrgyzstan Turmoil: Is Russia Losing its Hold on Central Asia?
Nikola Mikovic reports on the third domino to fall among Putin’s allies and questions around the Kremlin’s ability to influence its neighbours
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The Death of a Journalist ‘Blame the Russian Federation’
Kseniya Kirollova reports on the death of Irina Slavina, editor of the best known independent newspaper in the Volga region of Russia
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How Trump is Working with Russian Intelligence
Stephen Komarnyckj on reports US Intelligence services are suppressing evidence that the US President is still colluding with Putin’s influence operations
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‘A Single Source of Truth’: More Government Outsourcing Projects to Controversial Tech Firms Revealed
A new report lays bare details of the Government’s Coronavirus work conducted by Dominic Cummings’ favourite tech companies
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Azerbaijan–Armenia Conflict: Braced for Escalation
Nikola Mikovic reports on the intensification of violence between Azerbaijan and Armenia, as foreign superpowers wait in the wings
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‘Trumpian’ Conservative Party Plans for UK Voter Identification
With allegations of black voter suppression re-emerging in the US, Stephen Delahunty looks at similar attempts to disenfranchise millions of voters in the UK
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Myths and Misinformation Undermine the NHS
NHS consultant David Oliver punctures the dangerous fallacies surrounding the Coronavirus pandemic
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Trump, Cummings and Cambridge Analytica: The Digital Threat to Democracy
Tom Scott on how new revelations about voter suppression the US raise urgent questions about psychographic targeting of UK voters and plans to strip citizens of data protection rights
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The Kremlin’s French Connection: Five Reasons Why Putin Still Commands Gallic Respect
With support from the Far Right, and distrust of NATO and the US from the left, Tom Miles explains why Russian interference is not the issue in France it is in the UK
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Trump and Putin: Is Naftogaz the Big Prize?
Paul Niland explores the evidence that, with the help of the US President, Ukrainian’s state-owned oil and gas company could be an important asset in Russia’s hybrid warfare
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Who is the Legitimate Leader of Belarus?
Nikola Mikovic considers the future of the opposition movement in Belarus, after autocrat Alexander Lukashenko was secretly inaugurated for a sixth consecutive term
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‘Like Fish Markets’: PPE Supplier Lifts the Lid on Government Procurement ‘Scramble’
A business owner asked to provide £22 million of PPE by the Government sheds light on the frantic, high-stakes process
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The COVID Chumocracy
The UK under Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings is being governed by party stooges and corporate blobs lacking experience but offering loyalty, argues Sam Bright
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Government Spending on PPE Deals to Conservative Backers Rises to £364 Million
As the amount of taxpayers’ money the Government has awarded to Conservative donors and politicians in PPE procurement rises, health professionals continue to call for adequate protection as a second Coronavirus wave approaches
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Firm Owned By Conservative Donor Nets Additional £81.8 Million Government PPE Deals
The Government has awarded massive COVID-19 contracts to a firm owned by a Conservative backer without competition, reports Sam Bright
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Firm That Gave £400,000 to Conservatives Wins £93.8 Million Government PPE Deal
Another company with links to the Conservative Party has been awarded a massive PPE procurement contract, reports Sam Bright
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Boris Johnson’s Government is Silencing MPs, and the People We Represent
Geraint Davies MP explains why the Government’s decision to end online participation of MPs in Parliament is disenfranchising up to 15 million people and endangering democracy
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Government Awards £122 Million PPE Contract to One-Month-Old Firm
New details of the procurement scandal emerge, after Boris Johnson is asked about the questionable awarding of Government contracts at Prime Minister’s Questions
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Boris Johnson Under Pressure to Explain Questionable PPE Procurement Deals
Rushanara Ali MP has sent a letter to the Prime Minister, asking him to explain questionable COVID-19 contracts, including two deals exposed by Byline Times
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Irish Independent Politicians Excuse Kremlin Crimes and Oppose Belarus Sanctions
Sarah Hurst reports on two Irish MEPs who regularly appear on Russian sponsored media to defend Putin’s imperialist policies
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‘When Suicide Becomes Logical’: Inside A Separatist-Run Prison In Ukraine’s Donetsk
Ukrainian journalist Stanislav Asyev explains why choosing life over death was so important during his horrific 962 days imprisoned by the Kremlin-backed statelet
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CONSUMED BY LIES: Britain’s Masochistic Trashing of its Global Reputation
With Boris Johnson now U-turning on the Withdrawal Agreement he signed with the EU in December, Alex Andreou argues how the entire Brexit project “never made any sense” from the very start
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Russian State-linked Figures Promoted Portland ‘Cruise Rally’ and Fake News Site Inciting New American Civil War
Iggy Ostantin reveals Putin’s interference in US politics appears to be even deeper and darker in 2020
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Saving Private Equity: Why Johnson Really Wants Us Back in the Office
Christiana Spens looks at the financial pressures and potential lobbying from property developers that could be driving the UK Government’s Coronavirus response
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Government Procurement Scandal Continues with £43.8 Million PPE Contract for Dormant Firm
New documents reveal that TAEG Energy has earned more than £52 million in Government deals in total for the supply of personal protective equipment during the Coronavirus pandemic
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Government Spends £364 Million on Coveralls, Delivers Just 432,000
The Government has shelled out over £840 per bodysuit delivered to the NHS, reports Sam Bright
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Belarus: Are the Russians Coming?
Nikola Mikovic assesses the chances Putin will intervene militarily in his turbulent neighbour given the dangerous precedent of Ukraine
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Government Awards £240 Million PPE Deal to Firm Linked to Religious Sect
The biggest recipient of Government PPE spending has been a firm with ties to a fundamentalist religious sect, finds Byline Times
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Pure Poison: Putin’s Links to Espionage, Terrorism and Organised Crime
Zarina Zabrisky talks to Artyom Kruglov, an independent investigative journalist and Putin biographer, about the Russian President’s background
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Fact-Free Farage: UK Sees Fall in Asylum Applications
New Government figures show the Brexit Party Leader’s asylum ‘invasion’ for what it is: a myth
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Conspiracy and Paranoia: Lukashenko is Trying to Exploit the Fears of Moscow and the West
The Belarusian dictator has hatched a complex, contradictory plan to stay in power, reports Kseniya Kirillova
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Government Awards £8.4 Million in PPE Procurement Contracts to Dormant Firm
Millions in taxpayer cash has been given to company that doesn’t appear to have traded since it was founded in 2016 – a questionable move in a bigger “scandal”, according to one MP
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The Conservative-Crosby Insider Running Coronavirus Meme Firm Topham Guerin
The digital start-up given £3 million to help run Coronavirus communications has hired a member of Tory party royalty as its managing director, Sam Bright reveals
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SWEENEY INVESTIGATES: What Changed to Make Evgeny Lebedev No Longer a Security Risk?
John Sweeney investigates the Russian newspaper proprietor who parties with the Prime Minister and the change in security clearance that enabled his ennoblement
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The Body in the Bath: The Russian Connections to the Strange, Unexplained Death of a British Spy
With Parliament’s Russia Report exposing Putin’s covert operations in the UK, Iggy Ostantin looks at new Kremlin connections to the MI6 money-laundering expert found dead in his Pimlico flat in 2010
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Outsourcing Giant G4S Claims £10 Million Government Coronavirus Support – Despite £187 Million Profit
The billion-pound security firm took Government Coronavirus relief despite exceeding profit estimates
