2019 HIGHLIGHTS £2.50 BUT FREE FROM FEAR OR FAVOUR HARD THE JOKE FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM IS ON ISSN 2632-7910 TRUMP'S TOXICITY BORDER US FACT ARGUMENT REPORTAGE CULTURE HIGH LIGHTS of THE YEAR HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR SPONSORED BY Siân Kevill Ciaran Devane William P Mayr Michael O'Sullivan Antony Marshall Zoe Wales Steve Gall OUR READERS. Yvonne Christensen Brian Jacobs Lewis Smith Jan Safar Nina Nikolic Neil Poynter Millicent P West THANK YOU TO: Paul Lashmar Miss Lisa Rogan James Aughterson Alban Thurston ARM Kemeys Robert Singleton Carol Croft Mr S W Jones Niamh O’Connor Miriam Jordan Keane Georgina Allen James Stephen Williams SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR FIRST EIGHT MONTHS OF STORIES AS THEY WERE PUBLISHED 2 read more at bylinetimes.com BYLINE TIMES SPOTLIGHT ON: RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE EDITORIAL TO CELEBRATE THE WINTER SOLSTICE = A RAY OF LIGHT IN ALL THE DOOM AND GLOOM. WHAT BORIS JOHNSON uk ISC -10 d st ref 1026/5 This Editorial is based on a thread by our DOESN'T WANT YOU TO US Correspondent Caroline Orr. There’s a lot of doom and gloom around about KNOW how everything is broken, our systems are failing, and we can’t trust our institutions to save us. Although Byline Times agrees most of these With the British Prime Minister personally intervening to suppress a warnings are warranted, those warnings aren’t very parliamentary report into Vladimir Putin’s ‘active measures’ in UK politics during helpful if you don’t offer practical solutions. Britain’s General Election campaign, PETER JUKES looks a what the dossier may contain. It’s important to talk about how our institutions have been compromised, but unless this is paired with talk of actionable items to work around According to its chair- which found Russia had those systems, those warnings will fail. man, Dominic Grieve, Boris directly tried to intervene Johnson personally blocked in the 2016 EU Referendum. There’s an entire field of research on ‘fear- — for “bogus” reasons — the The committee estimated based messaging’. The evidence quite clearly imminent publication of a that the state-controlled shows us that scaring people without offering cross-party report on Russia channels RT and Sputnik’s pro- solutions not only fails to motivate action but meddling in UK politics by Leave websites garnered 134 often induces helplessness and resignation. Fear- Parliament’s Intelligence and million potential impressions based messaging is the last thing we need. Security Committee (ISC). – nearly five times the reach If we can’t trust institutions like the courts or Congress Elements of the sup- of the two domestic cam- or Parliament to save us: What is there to rely on? Well, pressed report have now paigns combined (Vote Leave for one thing, antifascism offers a model for working leaked out. According to CNN, had 33 million impressions outside the system to organize, build coalitions, stop the evidence of Bill Browder, and Leave.EU had 11 million). fascist mobilizations, and protect our communities. the campaigner behind the Had Russia paid for a social anti-corruption Magnitsky media campaign of this scale, In the era of Trump and Brexit, it has become Acts, suggests that Russia’s the committee estimated, it popular for pundits to act like prophets because President, Vladimir Putin, has would have cost between they recognized our countries are vulnerable to deployed Russians “to infil- £1.4 and £4.14 million. authoritarian impulses. But antifascists have always trate UK society and to con- Moreover, the report recognized this as a historical continuity with a ceal the underlying Russian revealed how the Internet high propensity for recurrence. Antifascism isn’t controllers and their agendas”. Research Agency (IRA), a based on alarmism about the future; it’s based on a In the meantime, open- Kremlin-backed St Petersburg- sober assessment of history, an understanding of the Democracy revealed that the based troll farm indicted for conditions that allow fascism to emerge and take hold. Conservative Party, which election interference in the So, during this festive season, as the longest night has received more than US, was simultaneously inter- of the year arrives, think twice before amplifying £3.5 million from Russian vening in British politics, with fatalistic narratives and consider giving voice funders since 2010, has a marked emphasis on stir- to those who’ve always understood the threat stepped up its dependence ring up Islamophobia and racial and actually offer solutions to counter it. on Russian donors to at hatred. It “tried to fuel social least £489,850 in the last divisions, including religious year, compared to £350,000 tensions, in the aftermath of in the year previously. the Westminster, Manchester, As Adam Schiff, chair London Bridge and Finsbury EDITORIAL INFORMATION of the House Intelligence Park terror attacks,” it stated. Committee in the US, has The Kremlin’s attempts Byline Times is brought to you by: said: “From what we’ve seen, to intervene continue. Last executive editors Peter Jukes and Stephen Colegrave the parallels between the October, Twitter closed editor Hardeep Matharu Russian intervention in Brexit down 3,613 new IRA and editorial assistant Ella Baddeley and the Russian interven- accounts. Analysis revealed tion in the Trump campaign these accounts tweeted Issue Editors: Hardeep Matharu and Peter Jukes appear to be extraordinary.” about Brexit 1,525 times. The DCMS Committee also Design: Byline Times Team and Yes we work Ltd The Report that HAS been Published found evidence that Russia In February, Parliament’s had access to a Cambridge This annual highlights edition is published by: Digital, Culture, Media and Analytica database – com- Byline Times, 426 Metal Box Factory, Sport (DCMS) Committee, piled through the hacking of 30 Great Guildford Street, London, SE1 0HS chaired by Conservative poli- up to 170 million Facebook tician Damian Collins, into users – and deployed this Contact Byline Times disinformation and fake during the EU Referendum stories and tips: [email protected] news published a report and the 2016 Presidential sales and advertising: [email protected] 3 BYLINE TIMES SPOTLIGHT ON: RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE Subsequent attendees the company of the then - Foreign Secretary at a fun- Election campaign to target least three potentially lucra- include alt-right commen draising event in Reading. UK and US voters. This breach tive investment opportuni- tator Milos Yiannopolous. - Meanwhile, Russian-born was referred to the National ties in Russian-owned gold But Nalobin’s most con oligarchs remain close to Crime Agency by the UK’s and state diamond mines. troversial role was helping Boris Johnson, including the Information Commissioner. Though the gold consolidation to establish the Conservative proprietor of the Evening deal was pursued for several Friends of Russia. Launched Targeting UKIP and Nigel Farage Standard and Independent, months, Banks says he never in August 2012 by Yakovenko Evgeny Lebedev – the son Nigel Farage’s former took up any of these offers. and Nalobin, it was attended of a former KGB spy. party UKIP has been a by senior Conservatives However, an investment com- Another rich oligarch strong supporter of Russia pany run by a close colleague such as the then chair of born in the Soviet Union, for over a decade. did take part in the privatisa- the DCMS Committee, and Alexander Temerko, has con- Former MEP and party tion of Alrosa diamond mines. soon-to-be Culture Minister, tributed more than £1 million secretary, Gerard Batten, has The Russian diplomat John Whittingdale, who - to the Conservatives since been close to former KGB fig- Udod is reported to be have was the group’s hon he gained British citizen- ures since the 1980s and been the handler of Russian orary vice president. - ship in 2011 and financed identified Alexander Litvinenko spies in the UK. Udod was Whittingdale was accom Johnson’s leadership cam- as a disaffected FSB offi- invited to a drinks party panied by an office aide, paign. According to Reuters, cer six months before he was hosted by Banks on the night Carrie Symonds, who - Temerko describes himself murdered by polonium poison- of the shock EU Referendum was promoted to spe as a “friend” who would ing by Putin’s security ser- result in June 2016. cial advisor when he moved “plot” late into the night vices. He co-authored an anti- In 2018, Udod was expelled into the Cabinet in 2015. - over a bottle of wine when EU book with an aide, Pavel from the UK as a suspected Symonds is now the girl Johnson became Foreign Stroilov, who had allegedly spy after the abortive assas- friend of Boris Johnson. Secretary. He admitted to fled Russia with “smuggled sination attempt on Sergei Though Conservative - being behind early plots secret Soviet documents”. Skripal using the novichok Friends of Russia was sub to remove Theresa May. Farage has twice described sequently disbanded, Nalobin nerve agent in Salisbury. The Russian connections the Russian President as the seems to have established Targeting the Conservatives - to Vote Leave go beyond most impressive world leader some key Conservative con and Boris Johnson its chief executive Matthew and his MEPs have consis- tacts before he left the Elliott. Its director, Dominic tently voted down sanctions It is clear in retrospect that country under a shadow. - Cummings, spent three years packages for Russia over its the Russian attempt to inter- Matthew Elliott, des in Russia from 1994 to 1997. invasion of eastern Ukraine. vene in British politics was tined to become the chief According to the Shadow Farage supports other a two-pronged affair. executive of the official Foreign Secretary Emily European right-wing politi- While Yakovenko and Vote Leave campaign, was a - Thornberry, “an official-level cians such as Marine Le Pen Udod made overtures to UKIP founding member and vis whistleblower” has raised and Matteo Salvini who have and Nigel Farage, another ited the Moscow Duma as questions about his relation- received Russian funding.