Londongrad

Britain prides itself on being impregnable; a country which hasn’t been invaded for 1000 years and can’t be bought. The Lebedevs give the lie to all that. They spent a lot, but not a fortune, buying their way into British public life. And they did it in a way which perhaps nobody had tried before: they amused the people who mattered.

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The oligarchs who made their way to London in the early 2000s and changed it presented themselves as embodiments of the new Russia; members of the global elite, and arms-length beneficiaries of Vladimir Putin’s new order, not slaves to it. Those were the terms on which Britain let them in, but it was mugged.

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There comes a moment in any successful invasion of a country when you can no longer hide, your plans have to become obvious. It’s a moment of jeopardy but if you can get through it - as  Alexander and Evgeny Lebedev did in Britain when they bought first the Evening Standard and later The Independent - then the scale of your ambitions can shift dramatically.

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Years of warnings about Russia’s intentions had gone unheeded; discounted as scaremongering. But then came the invasion of Crimea, and the end of any doubts. In spite of it all, the Lebedevs' ascent in London continued, and so did the extraordinary parties. 

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The Intelligence and Security Committee of the British Parliament produced a report into Russian interference in British democracy. Boris Johnson saw it before his general election landslide in 2019. But his government went out of its way to make sure it didn’t see the light of day until long after the election had been fought and won.

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Introducing Season 2 of Londongrad: Iran's Hit Squads.

Award-winning investigative reporter Paul Caruana Galizia returns to report the story of the foiled assassination attempts on British soil of Iranian nationals. Since January 2022, there has been an attempted assassination or kidnap at least once a month – all ordered by the Iranian government. 

In this four-part series, Paul will delve into how these attem...

London is a dark city in the middle of the night- these are the words of Iranian journalist Aliasghar who received a threat to life warning from the Met police. The police told him he was in immediate danger in the capital. In Paul Caruana Galizia's last series, Londongrad, he uncovered the extent of Russian money hidden in London. In season two he comes across another foreign power operating in the city and sets off to try to unco...

A lost photographer in a Chiswick business park, a nervous phone caller in LA and a speedboat bound for Caracas- who exactly are the hit men behind the threats? 

Episodes 1 + 2 are available for free. To get early access to the final two episodes of the series, and ad-free listening, subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple podcasts or join Tortoise as a member, where you can access more of our reporting, live events and support our...

A Hell's Angels leader and an international heroin trafficker are just some of the unlikely hires for Iranian plots abroad. But who else is Iran commissioning for its assassinations and abductions?

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Just visit tortois...

There are many competing visions for Iran and for what the country could become. In this episode, Paul asks whether enough is being done to protect Iranians overseas. 

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Just visit tortoisemedia.com/hitsquads for £60 a year.

From the team that brought you Sweet Bobby, and over three years in the making, Tortoise introduces Into The Dirt – a story about truth, spies and the stories we tell ourselves.

Misunderstood whistleblower or traitor to a cause? Our latest six-part podcast series explores the extraordinary story of private spy, Rob Moore.

Listen today. Follow Into The Dirt wherever you get your podcasts.

Introducing…Eight years’ hard Labour, hosted by David Aaronovitch. 

A new six part series from Tortoise which tells the inside story of a double revolution in the Labour Party which defined Britain’s present and will likely go on to shape its future. The series charts the takeover of Labour by the far-left under Jeremy Corbyn, the civil war that ensued and the election of a new leader, Keir Starmer, who set out to erase all...

Introducing...The Gas Man

It starts with a tip-off. 

It’s the late 1980s and US Special Agent Dennis Bass is warned about a shipment of suspicious chemicals headed to a secret destination. So he follows the lead – and ends up stumbling into a global plot helping fuel a war. The main suspect? The Gas Man. 

In the decades since, Special Agent Bass has been locked in an international game of cat and mouse with the m...