RUSSIAGATE! How a deep state cadre attempted to suppress democracy on the left and right

Dr Niall McCrae

Last week, Observer journalist Carole Cadwalladr finally admitted that she had absolutely no evidence that Arron Banks’ Leave.EU campaign was surreptitiously aided by the Kremlin. Full legal costs, crowd-funded from Remain riches, were awarded to Banks. Yet Cadwalladr seemed remarkably jolly. Was there more to this pack of lies than the ramblings of one eccentric writer? 

In recent years a small group of journalists have been smearing political figures to a remarkably zealous and obsessive degree. So-called ‘far-right’ activist Tommy Robinson and Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage have had this treatment, but the targets transcend the political spectrum to include Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. They have in common a popular appeal that is perceived, by the establishment, as dangerous.    

Integrity Initiative 

In November 2018, Cadwalladr and her Observer colleague Nick Cohen, alongside fellow journalists David Aaronovitch from the Times and James Ball of Buzzfeed, spoke at a two-day conference titled ‘Tackling Tools of Malign Influence – Supporting 21st Century Journalism’. This was organised by Integrity Initiative, a programme run by the Institute of Statecraft, a shadowy organisation based at a derelict mill in Fife. 

A lavishly-funded registered charity, the Institute of Statecraft defines statecraft as ‘the skilful use of state power’. As Mike Robinson reported on UK Column, it has links to other bodies in national and international security, including the 77th Brigade (the cyber warfare unit that is suppressing dissent towards the Covid-19 regime). The skill of state power, as we have seen this year, includes psychological operations to invoke fear and demoralise opponents. 

The Integrity Initiative was established in 2015 by the Institute of Statecraft in collaboration with the Free University of Brussels, to alert European democratic institutions to the threat posed by Russia. Mark Curtis, ex-fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), wrote on truepublica website: –

‘The UK government-financed Integrity Initiative, managed by the Institute for Statecraft, is ostensibly a ‘counter disinformation; programme to challenge Russian information operations. However, it has been revealed that the Integrity Initiative twitter handle and some individuals associated with this programme have also been tweeting messages attacking Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.’ 

Jeremy Corbyn

Nobody expected the anachronistic backbencher Jeremy Corbyn to become leader of the Labour Party. But with uninspiring competition from bland post-Blairites, Corbyn grasped the nettle. Under his leadership Labour grew to the largest political party membership in Europe. Although his socialist beliefs were out of tune with middle England, many respected Corbyn as an authentic politician. He almost won the 2017 general election called by Theresa May, whose parliamentary Conservative Party was tearing itself apart on Brexit. 

This, however, was the high watermark for Corbyn, who was mired in the scandal of anti-Semitism. Although he protested his innocence, his reputation was besmirched. Undoubtedly the Labour Party had vociferous critics of Israel and Zionism, with some blatant anti-Semitic voices. In 2018 I attended a rally against anti-Semitism in Labour, as reported on Conservative Woman. I spoke to Nick Cohen briefly, commending him on his prescient book of ten years earlier, What’s Left? A trendy young comedian led fellow gatherers into chanting ‘Oh, Jeremy is a racist’. Yet some conservative writers, for all they opposed Corbyn and everything he stood for, were uncomfortable with the relentless media onslaught and seemingly contrived outrage.

Corbyn was not only accused of disliking Jews. Prominent Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum described him as a ‘useful idiot’ who regurgitates Kremlin propaganda. It was not difficult to cast Corbyn as a friend of Britain’s enemies. When a Russian dissident was poisoned in Salisbury, Corbyn appealed for evidence before blaming Vladimir Putin. Guardian columnist Natalie Nougayrede was possibly the author of an editorial that she tweeted on ‘shameful Corbyn & Co reaction to Russia behaviour & chemical weapon use’. Carole Cadwalladr tweeted that ‘Labour has a Russia problem’ and that Corbyn’s advisor Seamus Milne’s ‘support for Putin has made him a Russian propaganda tool’. She also quoted a Tory MP on Milne batting for the other side: – 

‘”What he has done, wittingly or unwittingly, is to work with the Kremlin’s agenda”. Extraordinary quote from MP & expert on Russian active measures @IoWBobSeely in this incredible in-depth profile on Seamus Milne.’

Meanwhile Nick Cohen tweeted that ‘Labour is led by Putin fans’ and asked: – 

‘What is worse? Farage and Corbyn and twitter trolls divert attention from Russia’s political assassinations because they believe Putin is innocent or because they are morally corrupt?’ 

Cohen writes for the centre-right globalist Standpoint magazine, which is edited by Times journalist Edward Lucas. In the December 2019 edition Lucas argued that government failure to confront Russian malevolence was treasonous, having accepted as fact the now disproved conspiracy theory that the Kremlin rigged the US election in 2016. 

Several of the Times and Guardian journalists who associate Corbyn with Putin have links with the Integrity Initiative, which states as one of its objectives: ‘mobilising the network to activism in pursuit of fraudulent ‘popular’ campaigns and ‘independent’ news stories to push an agenda, as with the attack on Jeremy Corbyn’. 

Julian Assange 

In 2010 WikiLeaks received a vast set of classified military and diplomatic documents from US serviceman Bradley Manning. The Guardian worked with WikiLeaks to expose torture and death of thousands of Iraqi civilians. However, this partnership ended in 2011 when the Guardian accused Wikileaks of releasing unredacted material. On its website, WikiLeaks claimed that Guardian journalist David Leigh ‘negligently’ disclosed a password to the encrypted cache of cables in the book WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy. WikiLeaks claimed that this broke a confidentiality agreement signed by Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger. However, the Guardian had more influence and its narrative of recklessness by Assange carried more weight in public discourse.   

The Guardian shifted from actively supporting Assange to accusing him of working for Putin against Western democracy. Cadwalladr has tweeted that Assange is a ‘special friend’ of Russian intelligence, and that he and Milne ‘are both Russian propaganda tools’. In 2016 she asserted that WikiLeaks ‘sought assistance from Russian intelligence officers to disrupt the US presidential election’. Cohen has referred to Assange as a ‘Russian stooge’ and a ‘Putin agent’, and tweeted that WikiLeaks ‘will think whatever Putin tells it to think’. 

Rewards 

As Curtis acknowledged, the motives of Corbyn and Assange are legitimate topics for commentators, but he suspected orchestration by Integrity Initiative. Why would the likes of Cohen and Cadwalladr work with an organisation that distorts and truth and strives to stifle freedom of the press? A simple answer could be money. As newspaper sales plummet, columnists may be enticed by other sources of income. Of course, that is merely conjecture.  

With her elaborate double-page diagram in the Observer drawing tortuous links between Putin, Farage, Banks and other Leave campaigners, Cadwalladr was celebrated by Remainers in the aftermath of the EU referendum. For discovering this smoking gun she was awarded the prestigious Orwell Prize for Journalism. Now we know that it was no less of a hoax than the attempt to pin the Trump presidency on a treacherous plot with Putin.    

Cadwalladr’s strongest supporter was Cohen, who regularly praised her investigative journalism, as in December 2019 in Standpoint: –

‘My colleague and friend Carole Cadwalladr exposed how Facebook had allowed the consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica to harvest the data of tens of millions of users and sell it to politicians on the make. She published emails from Arron Banks showing how he and the Leave.EU campaign team met Russian embassy officials as many as 11 times in the run-up to the 2016 referendum.’

Aaronovitch, Cadwalladr and Cohen present themselves as defenders of democracy and decency. They use their platform to vilify politicians as far-left or far-right, and accuse them of racism. Cadwalladr persistently picked on young Brexiteer Darren Grimes. Yet Cohen and Co are the real extremists: they defy democracy (as in Brexit and Corbyn’s ascent to the Labour leadership); they detest popular opinion (which they denounce as ‘populism’) and they are protecting – directly or indirectly – the self-serving elite. In the latter cause they are not alone. The mainstream media have increasing bowed to authority, and sceptical British citizens rely on foreign sources for news that their own public broadcaster ignores. RT is demonised, but it covers events that the establishment would rather sweep under the carpet.  

Foreign & Commonwealth Office

Was there ‘deep state’ collaboration between the UK and US authorities on the conspiracy of Russian interference in the electoral shocks of 2016? Perhaps, but tracks are carefully covered. It is likely, however, that the FCO is sponsoring journalists to attack ‘populism’ and obstructers of progressive globalism. In December 2018 MP Chris Williamson (later expelled from Labour for alleged anti-Semitism) asked whether the FCO was funding the Integrity Initiative. Sir Alan Duncan replied that the FCO gave the Institute for Statecraft £296500 in 2017-18, rising to £1961000 in 2018-19, for its work in challenging disinformation. 

The Foreign Office, like the Civil Service generally, was profoundly troubled by Brexit and Trump, and is keen to strengthen democracy against such threats (otherwise known as the will of the people). It participates in the Eastern Partnership, an initiative to tighten bonds between former Soviet republics and Europe, and to prevent destabilisation by Russia. As this shows, the UK remains committed to unified defence of Europe. Putin is the bogeyman, rated as more of an existential threat to European peace and harmony than the Chinese Communist Party and Islamist terror. 

Lord Malloch Brown

Mark Malloch Brown is a diplomat with a long career in economic and social ventures at global level. After a stint as political correspondent for the Economist, his appointments include United Nations high commissioner for refugees, specialist at the World Bank, and in 2006 deputy secretary-general of the UN. He held a ministerial position and was ennobled under the Labour administration of Gordon Brown. An enthusiast of open migration, he is closely associated with George Soros.

Of particular interest is Malloch Brown’s role as chairman of Smartmatic, a company that produces electoral data software. In a Sky News interview in 2015 Malloch Brown said online voting raises turnout, particularly in younger voters. It was endorsed by Labour and by Speaker John Bercow, but the Tories were holding back. According to Matthew Ehret on Canadian Patriot, Smartmatic is ‘enmeshed with the Clinton Foundation, Soros’ Open Society and Nancy Pelosi’s very own Chief of Staff.’ 

It is no secret that Soros has funded subversive groups such as Black Lives Matter and Antifa, and he poured millions of dollars into ActBlue before the recent US presidential election. Although the Democrat Joe Biden appears to have won, the Trump team refuses to concede due to suspected systematic electoral fraud. One of the claims is that vote-counting machines were programmed by Smartmatic to switch votes from Trump to Biden. Smartmatic has previously been implicated in fraudulent activity in the USA, as well as elections in Mexico, Venezuela and the Philippines. 

Maybe Stalin was right: ‘it’s not the votes that count, but who counts the votes’. Giving short shrift to the allegations, the media insist that Biden is 46th president of the USA. They told us so before the election. While Trump held mass rallies, Biden did not need to campaign. Before all votes were tallied, broadcasters featured him speaking from the ‘Office for the President-Elect’. This curious phenomenon cemented the new reality in people’s minds, while casting Trump as a sore loser. The 2020 election showed that the media are not merely biased but active participants in an information war. 

Malloch Brown is a globalist who rails against macho leaders such as Jair Bolsanaro, Putin and Trump as a threat to the international rule-based order. Speaking at the conference ‘UN at 75: Slow Death or New Direction’, he lamented the slow progress to a post-nation world, as powerful nations have ‘resisted conceding power and sovereignty and decision making to this multilateral body’.  Perhaps the replacement of polling stations with online voting could reduce the risk of electoral errors by the hoi polloi. 

A deeper understanding

Many of us have been on a road to Damascus this year. Much of what we believed about how our country and the wider world are run has been revealed as a façade. In a parallel system, secretive structures have the real power, rather than our democratically elected government. As the Covid-19 episode has shown, the general public is naïve and easily duped. We must step up to a higher plane of consciousness, so that we are not only sceptical, but analytical. Sadly, the majority of people are stuck at the first level in the hierarchy of trust. 

Credulous…	Believe that BBC, scientists and authorities always tell the truth
Sceptical…	Perceive bias in information from authorities, seek other sources
Analytical…	Consider underlying agenda in all information / misinformation

 

The powers-that-be are not only suppressing inconvenient truths, but are propagating false or distorted information. While they accuse Covid sceptics of conspiracy theory, they are guilty themselves. Here is one minor example. On 28th November the BBC reported that mass protests in Paris were spurred by a violent arrest of a black musician by three white police officers. Actually they were demonstrating against a proposed law preventing citizens from recording police officers. Attended by all segments of society, the rallies were too large to keep out of the news. So the authorities created another cause for the protest. The BBC, which ignored the Gilets Jaunes last year and recent anti-lockdown rallies, suddenly chose to cover Parisian protestors. The arrest (possibly staged) enabled the narrative to be turned from negative to positive. Arguably, the cause of anti-racism is encouraged by the establishment for divide and rule. Unity of opposition must be stopped at all costs. 

If the term ‘statecraft’ sounds sinister, it’s because it probably is.  And if journalists are working for the state and by extension the New World Order, rather than genuinely and earnestly informing the public, then we are sliding into the abyss. 

Acknowledgment

The author would like to thank Adrian Rides and Tina Brooker for advice on this article.