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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UK Academics Get Hefty Grant to ‘Reframe Russia’
Sarah Hurst reports on a new British group which criticises pro-European projects and draws the praise of Russian state media.
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Coronavirus: We Must Resist this Exercise in Hypernormalisation
Hardeep Matharu warns against becoming numb to the constructed reality being created by politicians as the UK gets to grips with the immense human cost of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Exploiting a Pandemic: Billionaire Press Owners Want Your Tax Money
Brian Cathcart argues that, while journalism is in crisis because of COVID-19, subsidies to untrustworthy newspaper proprietors are not the answer.
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Democracy in the UK – How Worried Should We Be?
Mike Buckley observes how authoritarian takeovers are often led by elected incumbents and finds worrying signs in Boris Johnson’s populist approach.
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Putin Exports Medical Supplies While Russia Suffers from the COVID-19 Crisis
Zarina Zabrisky reports on the repression of medics and suppression of factual reports from Russia despite its international PR exercises.
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The Coronavirus Crisis: Disinformation Rings True As Our Pandemic of Untruth Continues
Musa Okwonga explores why conspiracy theories are finding such an audience and what this exposes about the worrying state of our democracy and the social contract.
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‘Digging a Grave’: Russian Ministry of Defence Threatens Journalist who Exposed Italian COVID-19 Intelligence Operation
Officials target Jacopo Iacoboni of La Stampa over his revelations about Russian assistance to Italy, reports Stephen Komarnyckyj
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Disaster Capitalism: Conservative Party Donor Cashes in on UK Government-Made PPE Shortages Amidst COVID-19 Crisis
Nafeez Ahmed reports on a new contract with the giant haulage firm whose executive chairman has donated nearly £1 million to the Conservatives.
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The Coronavirus Crisis: ‘Liberal Swine’ – How the Kremlin Exploits the Pandemic for Propaganda
Kseniya Kirillova exposes the attempts to discredit the West, undermine Ukraine, and persecute dissidents in the current Russian disinformation campaign.
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The Coronavirus Crisis: Why Are Lies More Attractive than Science?
Sarah Haque explores the gap between expert and public understandings of science and why this poses such challenges in times of public health crises such as the Coronavirus pandemic.
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The Coronavirus Crisis: The Crisis of Incompetence
Paul Niland explores how the global Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the weakness of populist politics and unprincipled power.
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A Good Day to Bury Bad News: US Justice Department Drops Charges over Russia’s 2016 Election Interference
Caroline Orr reports on how charges against indicted Putin Ally Yevgeny Prigozhin were abandoned just as the coronavirus pandemic in the US set a deadly new record.
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Big Lies and Rotten Herrings: 17 Kremlin Disinformation Techniques You Need to Know Now
As the US Presidential elections approach, Russian Intelligence expert Zarina Zabrisky provides a comprehensive guide to Putin’s latest propaganda ploys.
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Emigrant Espionage: How the Kremlin Keeps the Russian Diaspora Abroad Vulnerable
Kseniya Kirillova explains the influences that make Russians overseas prey to pressure from Vladimir Putin, and how to counteract them.
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Spies Who Go Into the Cold: How Russian Media Recruits Western Intelligence Officials
As the former director of France’s MI6 joins a Russian propaganda channel Stephen Komarnyckyj reports on a new phase of Putin’s hybrid warfare.
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Underground Russian Influence: Johnson and the Ghost Station
Turlough Conway on how a new legal case against Boris Johnson raises more questions about money laundered in London and Conservative connections to Russia.
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Sanders Versus Trump: Why Russian Intervention Will be Worse in 2020
With Donald Trump facing re-election in the US and the Labour leadership for up grabs in the UK, Stephen Komarnyckyj looks at how Vladimir Putin is trying to further disrupt politics in both countries.
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‘Rape of Britain’: Russia Rolls Out the Red Carpet for ‘Tommy Robinson’
Sarah Hurst on how the far-right activist visited Russia to praise Vladimir Putin and spread Islamophobic and racist propaganda about the UK.
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History and the Cult of Victory: The Kremlin’s Revisionist “Soft Power”
As Putin rewrites the past in order to control the future, Kseniya Kirillova reveals what it tells us about Russia’s strategic goals.
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Tip of the Iceberg: More Connections Between Boris Johnson and Russian Influencers Emerge
Turlough Conway investigates a new network of connections with the Prime Minister which lead back, via senior Russian oligarchs, to the alleged agent Joseph Mifsud
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Online Harms Bill: Our Democracy is at Stake and the Government Isn’t Serious About Tackling it
Kyle Taylor on the irresponsible omission in the Government’s new Online Harms White Paper — the protection of democracy.
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‘Pre-Fascism’ is Now Everywhere in Politics – What Can be Done?
Andy Myles looks at the democratic apathy that has allowed populists such as Trump, Bannon and Cummings to activate an effective hardcore base.
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Conspiracies and Chaos in the Democratic Primaries
Stephen Delahunty reports on concerns about electoral tech platforms, SuperPacs, and the fears of foreign interference resurfacing in the US Democratic Party.
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Political Advertising: How to Stop Polarisation over Campaign Lies
Stephen Kinnock MP and Kyle Taylor explain why self-regulation of political ads won’t work and how we mustn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
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Attacks on the BBC are Less About Broadcasting and More About a Divided Britain
Former BBC producer Patrick Howse demolishes the arguments about the license fee but hears Tony Hall has been a ‘Useful Idiot’ for those who want to destroy the public service broadcaster.
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Trump Impeachment: Separating Fact from Fiction in the Biden Burisma Affair
With his expertise in Ukraine, Paul Niland dissects the disinformation about the Oil and Gas company and highlights the real corruption Trump ignores.
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Rogue Political Ads that Lie Will Never Be Tamed Without Regulation
The co-founder of the Coalition for Reform in Political Advertising welcomes new recommendations on electoral and political advertising, but believes they have ignored the biggest issue.
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Black Cube Employee Working for Harvey Weinstein also Targeted Carole Cadwalladr over the Cambridge Analytica Scandal
Peter Jukes on evidence that a former Guardian writer working for the Israeli security company threatened the award-winning Observer journalist.
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Russian Government Bank Deposited $500 Million into Deutsche Bank Subsidiary as it Lent to Trump
Forensic News has more revelations about Donald Trump’s finances in 2013, just as he hit a debt crisis and visited Moscow.
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The Battle To Save Democracy Has To Start Now
Gareth Roberts argues that British democracy is being endangered by unwitting ignorance and deliberate lies.
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Back in the USSR? Putin’s Plans for Russia’s Neighbour Belarus
As Vladimir Putin tries extend his reign, Belarus, a country of nine and a half million people, may soon be absorbed by Russia reports Stephen Komarnyckyj.
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The Russia Conundrum: Can a Critic of Putin be Inadvertently Serving his Interests?
Boris Johnson’s friend Aleksandr Temerko is one of a number of wealthy London-based Russians who, while opposing Vladimir Putin, are linked to organisations that are potentially useful to the Kremlin dictator.
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Three Years of Trump Conspiracy Theories Debunked: The Origin of the Russia Investigation
Caroline Orr on how the Inspector General’s report is bad news for the US President and his fake narratives around his extensive Russian ties.
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Trolls, Sock Puppets and Useful Idiots: An Anatomy of an Election Disinformation Campaign
Peter Jukes dissects how ‘No 10 sources’, mainstream broadcast journalists and an army of hired online activists tried to save Boris Johnson from himself.
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Zombie Neighbourhoods: London’s Disappearing Voters
David Hencke reveals how offshore riches and the explosion of Airbnbs is creating a rise in ghost towers and a falling electorate.
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Bad News is not Fake News: Not All Digital Campaigning is Dark Arts
Kyle Taylor from the Fair Vote project argues modern microtargeting shouldn’t be abandoned to shady billionaire-funded right-wing groups.
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The Future of Journalism is at the Heart of this General Election
Brian Cathcart, Professor of Journalism at Kingston University, argues that the cosy relationship between Boris Johnson and most of the press means there will be no check on his power if he is elected with a majority.
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More Digital Dark Arts: Brexit Party Supporters Hijack the Mayor of London’s Personal Website
Brexit Party supporters appear to have taken over more than one Labour party website, redirecting all searches and previous links to Nigel Farage’s party webpage.
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Selling Off the NHS: The “Great Prize” of No Deal Brexit
Leaked ‘sensitive’ documents from trade talks with the Trump Administration suggest the Holy Grail of Hard Brexiters is carving up Britain’s efficient, free universal healthcare.
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Putin, Bannon & Silicon Valley: The Axis of Oligarchs
Tamsin Shaw explains how anti-market Russian oligarchy has spread to the US, and that Big Tech may be the prime beneficiary.
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The Facebook Loophole: Rules about ‘Non-Party Campaigners’ are Making a Mockery of Democracy
After the ‘fake Green Party’ ads, Byline Times reveals nearly 3000 Facebook campaigns that escape electoral law and allow tens of millions of undeclared election spending.
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Russian Interference Part II – Brexit and the Great Cambridge Analytica Hack
With Boris Johnson having suppressed a report into how Russian spies penetrated the Conservative Party and UKIP, Peter Jukes looks at how Russian interference in Brexit online campaigning set the stage for Donald Trump.
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Boris Johnson’s Selfish Lies on Russian Interference Put our Entire Democratic System at Risk
Retiring Labour MP and Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee member Ian Lucas urges the Prime Minister to take the threat posed by Putin’s Russia seriously – and put the UK before his own personal interests.
