Journalists Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes – with the help of Conservative party whistleblower Sergei Cristo – expose an alleged secret spy ring operating at the very heart of the British political system. This is the untold story of the most audacious Russian influence operation in British history. It involves honey traps, Russian agents and information warfare.
Russian wealth and glamour collide with a wild west of new digital landscapes. And as Sergei tries and fails to raise the alarm, this intoxicating cocktail – shaken and stirred from within the Russian Embassy in London – masks the tightening iron fist of Vladimir Putin inside Russia and murder of traitors on foreign soil. All while MPs, intelligence officers and the police turn a blind eye.
Not since the reach of the Cambridge spy ring in the second half of the 20th century has the Kremlin aimed so high and gone so unnoticed in penetrating the highest echelons of British politics.
Together, Conservative whistleblower Sergei Cristo, Orwell Prize-winning journalist Carole Cadwalladr and creator of the hit podcast, Untold: The Daniel Morgan Murder, Peter Jukes, uncover a story that forms one small corner of Vladimir Putin’s plot against the West. It’s a story we’re still living, where the stakes couldn’t be higher.
This podcast seeks to shine a light in the dark corners of a Westminster spy ring hidden in plain sight and search for the answers we all deserve.
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 secre...
Mar 04, 2025•47 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast
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. He writes to his old friend Dr Julian Lewis MP, who becomes the Chairman of the Committee. The advice comes back from Westminster, which sends Sergei round the circles of police and judicial authorities, which, in the end, yields nothing. But not without som...
Feb 25, 2025•30 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast
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 t...
Feb 11, 2025•44 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast
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. Listen t...
Feb 07, 2025•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast
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. NATO c...
Feb 04, 2025•45 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast
Westminster is caught up in bitter Brexit debates and Trump’s first term in office is getting mired in investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Suddenly the two worlds collide in the form of an enigmatic Maltese professor, revealed in the unsealing of FBI indictments. Sergei is disgusted with the atmosphere pervading British politics. Meanwhile, new trolling tactics of the Russian embassy, echoed by some on UK political fringes, takes a threatening turn, directed not ...
Jan 28, 2025•32 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast
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 weekl...
Jan 21, 2025•42 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast
It’s now 2013 and a new organisation has risen from the ashes of the disgraced Conservative Friends of Russia - the Westminster Russia Forum. This time the launch is on the House of Commons riverside terrace. Russia Today is booming, experimenting with new ways to reach new audiences through packaging up content for online viral hits. Its tagline is question everything. Marina Litvinenko is dismayed when the government rejects her call for a public inquiry into her husband’s fatal poisoning. And...
Jan 14, 2025•40 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast
With seemingly little interest from MI5 in Sergei’s concerns around what he believes to be an illegal offer of Russian funds into the Conservative party, he looks for other ways to raise the alarm. And after the success of the Conservative Friends of Russia launch party, the Russian embassy opens up a new charm offensive, inviting bloggers and social media specialists to ‘digital barbecues’ within their sumptuous surroundings. Insider, Steve Lacey, takes us on his journey down the rabbit hole of...
Jan 07, 2025•37 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast
Sergei Cristo starts making enquiries into the mysterious new diplomat whose conversation over tea at the Carlton club has raised red flags. And what his friends, Marina Litvinenko and Oleg Gordievsky, tell him only increases his anxiety. Meanwhile, a new organisation launches - Conservative Friends of Russia - at the gardens of the Russian Embassy in London, just days after members of Pussy Riot are imprisoned in Moscow. Episodes drop weekly! A Project Citizen & The Citizens production. To ...
Dec 31, 2024•30 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast
A Russian diplomat newly posted to the capital contacts a Conservative party activist, Sergei Cristo, and asks for an introduction. They meet at the oldest Conservative private member’s club in London, late 2011. The conversation raises suspicions for Sergei and he looks to share his concerns. But is anyone listening? Episodes drop weekly! A Project Citizen & The Citizens production. To find out more about the story and issues it raises visit www.the-citizens.com Presented by: Carole Cadwall...
Dec 31, 2024•24 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast
Introducing… Sergei and the Westminster Spy Ring . Follow Conservative whistleblower Sergei Cristo, Orwell Prize-winning journalist Carole Cadwalladr and co-founder of Byline Times, Peter Jukes, as they uncover an alleged Russian spy operation that penetrated the heart of Westminster. A Project Citizen & The Citizens production. To find out more about the story and issues it raises visit www.the-citizens.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Dec 27, 2024•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast
