2 2GN The Sunday Times May 1, 2022NEWS
five years he won government contracts
worth more than £2 billion, according to
the Anti-Corruption Foundation set up
by Alexei Navalny, the jailed critic of the
Kremlin.
Western intelligence agencies believe
the lucrative contracts were a ploy to
hand Prigozhin slush funds to be used in
deniable “black operations” around the
world.
One of his key tasks is thought to be the
provision of funds for the Wagner Group,
a shadowy band of 5,000 mercenaries
linked to assassinations, election-rigging
and cyberwarfare. He denies any link to
the organisation.
The group is said to be present in as
many as 12 countries, including Sudan,
Syria, the Central African Republic,
Madagascar and Mozambique.
Wagner’s membership includes citi-
zens of Belarus, Moldova, Serbia and
Ukraine, although it is mainly staffed byBands
such as
Daft
Punk
were hitLOTTERY RESULTS15, 19, 26, 41, 51, 57
Bonus 52SATURDAY
APRIL 30
3, 26, 27, 36, 38
Thunderball 14SATURDAY
APRIL 30
10, 11, 20, 36, 37
Lucky Stars 3, 7FRIDAY
APRIL 29FIND US ONYevgeny
Prigozhin, known
as “Putin’s chef”,
served the
president’s foodCALL MY
TRANSLATOR
The French TV hit
about stars and their
agents is transplanted
to Britain — but
something’s missingWELCOME TO
FRAUDBOOK
For just £
criminals can
post Facebook
ads for fake
savings schemes£
THROWING
SHADE
Traffic-stopping
sunglasses are
this summer’s
must-have
accessoryMOGG AND
HIS MOB
A family lunch
with the
‘minister for the
18th century’ and
father of sixInstagram and YouTube. On TikTok,
which is most popular with teenage
users, the British-backed researchers
found so-called influencers being paid to
amplify pro-Kremlin narratives about the
war in Ukraine, using the same “Z”
branding as the Russian armed forces.
The disinformation campaign urges
users to target mainstream western
media outlets and post specific messages
about world leaders who oppose the Rus-
sian invasion, including Johnson, Olaf
Scholz, the German chancellor, and
Josep Borrell, the EU foreign affairs chief.
Subscribers to CFZ were urged to dis-
seminate a video that presents Ukrain-
ians as a “Russophobic terrorist organisa-
tion” that “tortures and brutally murders
in the style of Islamic terrorists”, along
with the instruction: “We ask our
acquaintances from other countries to do
the same.”
A bizarre collection of social media
accounts owned by bands and perform-
ers were also hit, including the French
dance producers Daft Punk and the
Dutch DJ Armin van Buuren.
“The Kremlin has been implementing
a series of information operations
designed to deliver persuasive disinfor-
mation and propaganda,” an internal
British government report said.
“Some of these information opera-
tions are targeting the conflict zone in
Ukraine, some are engaging in informa-
tion control for Russian domestic public
opinion management, and others focus
upon international audiences.”
It is suspected that the operation is run
by Prigozhin, whose life changed dramat-
ically after meeting Putin. He spent nine
years in prison in the 1980s for offences
including robbery and fraud. When
released in 1990, Prigozhin set up a chain
of restaurants in St Petersburg and
became known as “Putin’s chef ” after
personally serving dinner to the Russian
president and Jacques Chirac, then the
president of France.
It was not long before he started carry-
ing out catering for Kremlin banquets. InTRAVEL
BRILLIANT
KOREA
The cherry trees
are blossoming
and so is tourism
in the jewel of
east AsiaA Russian troll factory has spread lies
about the war in Ukraine across social
media platforms including Twitter, Face-
book, YouTube and TikTok, according to
research commissioned by the govern-
ment.
Boris Johnson and other world leaders
have been targeted as part of a Kremlin
disinformation campaign which, it is sus-
pected, has been orchestrated by a close
ally of President Putin.
The troll factory was trying to manipu-
late international public opinion in sup-
port of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,
researchers found.
The cyberwarriors used the messaging
app Telegram to co-ordinate new sup-
porters, who then targeted the social
media profiles of Kremlin critics, spam-
ming them with pro-Putin and pro-war
comments.
The group co-ordinating the activity,
Cyber Front Z (CFZ), is a Telegram chan-
nel suspected of having links to Yevgeny
Prigozhin, a former hot-dog seller and
convict who became a billionaire after
meeting Putin.
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said:
“We cannot allow the Kremlin and its
shady troll farms to invade our online
spaces with their lies about Putin’s illegal
war. The UK government has alerted
international partners and will continue
to work closely with allies and media plat-
forms to undermine Russian information
operations.”
The multilingual disinformation cam-
paign has been detected across all the big-
gest social media companies. However,
the attacks are centred on Telegram,former Russian soldiers, intelligence offi-
cers and criminals.
The Foreign Office has already
imposed an asset freeze and travel ban on
Prigozhin, saying he was “responsible for
significant foreign mercenary activity in
Libya and multiple breaches of the UN
arms embargo”.
He is also accused of financing the
notorious St Petersburg-based Internet
Research Agency, a bot factory that sup-
ported Donald Trump in the 2016 US
election.
Prigozhin allegedly oversaw opera-
tions including the creation of hundreds
of fictitious online personas and the use
of stolen identities. The FBI has said the
actions were taken to reach a significant
number of US citizens for the purpose of
interfering with the country’s political
system, including in the 2016 election.
Following the latest discovery, the Brit-
ish government alerted western allies
and shared evidence of the disinforma-
tion campaign with the social media
giants, in an attempt to remove the prop-
aganda from their platforms.
Since the invasion of Ukraine on Feb-
ruary 24, the British government has
already sanctioned key Kremlin figures
for spreading disinformation, including
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary,
and Maria Zakharova, the foreign affairs
spokeswoman.
Ministers also approved sanctions
against Russian state media organisa-
tions, including the Kremlin-funded
TV-Novosti which owns RT, formerly
Russia Today, and Rossiya Segodnya,
which controls the Sputnik news agency.
Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary,
said: “These are insidious attempts by
Putin and his propaganda machine to
deceive the world about the brutality he’s
inflicting on the people of Ukraine.
“This evidence will help us to more
effectively identify and remove Russian
disinformation and follows our decisive
action to block anyone from doing busi-
ness with Kremlin-controlled outlets RT
and Sputnik.”‘Putin fixer’s troll factory’ turns
fire on social media and pop stars
Research has found an
ally of the president may
be behind pro-Kremlin
propaganda on a bizarre
variety of platformsCaroline Wheeler Political EditorMAGAZINE
NEWSPAPERS SUPPORT RECYCLING
The recycled paper content of UK
newspapers in 2020 was 67%TWITTER’S
NEW SHERIFF
Will Elon Musk’s
promise of free speech
spell the end for the
social media platform?STYLE
BUSINESS & MONEY
CULTURE
NEWS REVIEW
This week in
The Sunday Times
Also on our phone
app, on tablet
and online at
thesundaytimes.co.uk
Today’s highlights
8.15am Christina Lamb, The Sunday Times’s chief foreign
correspondent
10.10am The business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng
2.15pm Jon Fratelli, lead singer in the Scottish rock band
the Fratellis
6.40pm The author and podcaster Elizabeth Day
11.15pm American panel, with Julia Manchester from the
political newspaper The HillMISHA JAPARIDZE/AP PHOTOTRAVEL
BRILLIAN
KOREA
The cherry t
are blossom
and so is tou
in the jewel
east Asiaentity. So, you know, he’s
having to make a lot of
changes and has made a lot of
changes. I think one of the
things that people miss is
[that] he’s taking good
control of the Labour Party.
“The challenge for the
Labour Party now, but it’s in a
position where if it wants to it
can meet that challenge, is to
articulate a clear forward
agenda for the country.”
The development comes
just days after reports of
tensions between the two
Labour figures, which were
denied by both of them.
A spokeswoman for Blair
said that he believed Starmer
had shown “strength,
determination and
intelligence in setting Labour
back on a winning path”.back on a winning path. He
knows a Labour Party true to
its principles is a Labour
Party dedicated to winning
power, to change our country
again for the better.”
It is 25 years since Blair was
elected prime minister,
declaring a “new dawn” had
broken. He left No 10 in 2007
and is understood not to have
appeared in an election
broadcast since.
In an interview with Times
Radio yesterday he praised
Starmer, claiming that the
challenge now facing Labour
was to “articulate a clear
forward agenda for the
country”. He said: “Keir’s
taken over after Jeremy
Corbyn and really the
degradation of the Labour
Party as a serious governingSir Tony Blair has given his
personal backing to Sir Keir
Starmer, appearing in one of
Labour’s election broadcasts
for the first time since leaving
Downing Street.
Blair gave the Labour
leader his public
endorsement in a video that
will be released to members
today as the party prepares
for this week’s local elections.
In the clip, Blair says:
“Today after four defeats, just
as in 1997, we have new
leadership and a renewed
sense of purpose and
mission. Keir Starmer has
shown strength,
determination and
intelligence in setting LabourCaroline Wheeler and
Harry Yorkefacilities are open.” One
insider said that, in recent
weeks, an MP had become so
drunk on champagne that
they had been escorted from
the Pugin tea room, one of
the most opulent bars in
parliament used for
hospitality and dining.
They also said that a
female researcher had
consumed so much alcohol
that she vomited over a
parliamentary bar. She was
later found unconscious
outside the room.
A senior official blamedCommons
to overhaul
culture of
sexism
bar staff for continuing to
serve MPs and their staff
when they were inebriated.
“They are selling bottles of
wine to people who are
paralytic. They need to be
trained to say ‘no’,” the
source added.
Other allegations include
staffers being groped in
parliamentary bars by MPs,
female parliamentarians
being subjected to
misogynistic nicknames, and
even claims that a minister
has been overheard having
“noisy sex” in his office.
Concerns over the culture
in Westminster also extend to
No 10, where an award for
“sexist of the year” is alleged
to have been handed out at
the now infamous Christmas
party in 2020.
Elsewhere, a married Tory
MP was accused of stating
while out campaigning in a
recent by-election: “Who
needs Tinder when you have
got canvassing?”
Last week’s controversy is→Continued from page 1only the latest chapter in a
saga that began five years ago
when allegations of sexual
harassment by a number of
MPs led to the creation of the
Independent Complaints and
Grievance Scheme (ICGS). Sir
Michael Fallon, Charlie
Elphicke and Stephen Crabb
were among MPs who faced
allegations of sexual
impropriety.
Fallon resigned as a
minister over a string of
sleaze allegations. Elphicke
was jailed for two years after
being convicted of three
charges of sexual assault.
Hoyle said: “I take recent
allegations of bullying and
sexual impropriety,
comments and advances very
seriously, which is why it is
time we reviewed our
working practices. It is time
to consider radical action and
review structures that could
make a difference.”
Party animals, pages 6-7,
Editorial, page 24Blair finally reappears in a
Labour election broadcast
by those who have been
found to have broken the
rules.”
It is understood that the
most egregious event in terms
of premeditation was to mark
the departure of Hannah
Young, a No 10 private
secretary. It took place on
June 18, 2020, with 20 people
gathering in a room close to
the cabinet secretary’s office
in 70 Whitehall and was
described by officials as
“raucous”.
Last month it emerged
that Helen MacNamara,
the former director-general
of the propriety and
ethics team at the Cabinet
Office, had attended and
received a £50 fixed penalty
notice.
It was also alleged that
MacNamara had brought a
karaoke machine to the
gathering, which ended with
a brawl between two staff.
It has now been claimed
that an email exchange,
details of which have been
shared with this newspaper,
showed that staff discussed
the gathering in advance and
were warned by officials that
it might be a breach of the
rules.
There was said to be a
debate as to what type of
room was best suited to hold
a gathering while coronavirus
restrictions were in place.
The rooms in No 10, where
Young had worked, were
considered too small, one
source claimed. A secondsource provided an
alternative explanation,
alleging that Martin
Reynolds, then Johnson’s
principal private secretary,
had been told by senior aides
in No 10 that he could not
organise an event there.
As the email exchange
continued, one respondent is
said to have questioned
whether the event was a good
idea. According to one
familiar with the incident,
they are said to have asked:
“Is this wise?”
It was at this point that
MacNamara is said to have
stepped in and assured
others on the email chain
that she had resolved the
issue. According to insiders,
she gave approval for a room
to be used in the Cabinet
Office.
In the end, the event is
believed to have begun in a
communal area on the
ground floor of the Cabinet
Office, before “migrating” to
a room close to the cabinet
secretary’s office.
Gray is also understood to
have copies of another email,
which shows that a very
senior official warned
Reynolds against inviting 100
staff to a “bring your own
booze” party in the No 10
garden on May 20, 2020.
Police have started issuing
fines for the party, which
Johnson attended with Carrie
Symonds, then his fiancée,
and more than 50 Downing
Street staff.Sue Gray’s report into
lockdown-breaking parties
will expose emails revealing
widespread “premeditation”
by civil servants and Downing
Street staff who knew they
were breaking the law.
The revelation comes as it
emerged yesterday that the
latest Metropolitan Police
questionnaires have been
sent out, and relate to the
leaving party of Lee Cain, the
prime minister’s former
director of communications,
on November 13, 2020.
Gray’s report, on hold until
Scotland Yard has completed
its investigations, is expected
to be highly critical of Boris
Johnson for attending some
events and for the culture in
No 10 under his leadership.
A senior official familiar
with the contents said the
findings would be “difficult
for everyone”.
One source has suggested
the report will leave Johnson,
who has already been fined
for attending an event to
mark his 56th birthday, with
no option but to resign.
An official said: “The most
shocking thing Sue’s report
has uncovered is a series of
emails which expose the
extent to which the parties
were premeditated and the
rules were being wilfully
broken.
“She is also concerned by
the lack of contrition shownCaroline Wheeler and
Harry YorkeCabinet Office was warned
parties were breaking law
Angelina Jolie, the actress and UN envoy, visited families in Lviv who have fled from
other parts of Ukraine. She was later hurried to safety when an air-raid siren soundedANGELINA IN WAR ZONE
MAKSYM KOZUTSKY/LVIV CITY HALL/APBanca do Antfer
Telegram: https://t.me/bancadoantfer
Issuhub: https://issuhub.com/user/book/
Issuhub: https://issuhub.com/user/book/