Show Notes
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.
More from 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.