Suspicious Deaths
The First Victims of the New Cold War -
Russia’s Campaign of Terror on British Soil
By Roman Gerodimos, Shey Spears and Shemonti Shams
The recent poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury constitutes a critical juncture in Russia’s relations with the West. The British government has concluded that it is “highly likely” that Russia was responsible for this act of aggression [Guardian]. It has now started to implement a series of measures, such as the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats who were identified as undeclared intelligence officers [BBC].
However, it is now clear that the poisoning of Sergei Skripal is not an isolated case. There is now overwhelming evidence that the Russian authorities have been carrying out a systematic campaign of terror, on British soil, over several years. As with the campaign of cyber attacks and interference in the domestic politics of western liberal democracies, this string of physical attacks appears to be part of a strategic decision, on the part of Russian president Vladimir Putin, to exercise power on foreign territories, outside of legal frameworks and international norms. While the Skripal poisoning is likely to be seen by future historians as the formal start of a New Cold War (or Cold War 2.0), that era started several years ago.
According to the Prime Minister, Theresa May, Russia has a track record of “state-sponsored assassinations” [Guardian]. Investigative journalists such as Luke Harding, Martin Sixsmith, Ed Lucas and Andrew Gilligan — amongst many others — have published numerous books and articles over the last decade, documenting the practices of the Russian government both at home and abroad. The 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in central London captured the headlines due to the nature of the crime and the protracted calls for a public inquiry, which followed. Individual cases of other deaths — such as apparent suicides and unexpected heart attacks — received limited press coverage. In the majority of cases, British authorities hastily concluded that no foul play was involved, even when there was strong evidence to the contrary.
In June 2017, BuzzFeed [BF] published an important investigative feature that finally joined the dots and presented a comprehensive list of 14 suspicious cases that US intelligence agencies have linked to Russia. It is that BuzzFeed piece that has been the main source of journalists and politicians trying to make sense of those events over the last few days and weeks, and it is also one of the main sources for this feature.
While there are some differences amongst the cases — some victims are Russians living in the UK, while others are British citizens — and while there are varying degrees of certainty over whether Russian authorities were directly or indirectly responsible for those deaths, all cases have been linked to Russia, either through the secret and intelligence services, or through the flow of money, or both.
The Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, has now called these cases “deeply troubling” [Sky], while the Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, asked the government to reopen and investigate all cases:
“You will be aware of reports of considerable concerning evidence about many of the 14 cases that raises serious doubts about the decisions made in each case to treat them either as suicides, natural causes or accidents. This reported evidence raises questions over the robustness of the police investigations” [Yvette Cooper MP, UK Parliament].
For the purposes of this feature, we have collated and outline below key details on 17 cases of suspicious deaths and attacks that have taken place on British soil over the last 15 years, as well as the emerging patterns and implications. The cases are presented in chronological order. The aim of this report is to curate information that is publicly available about this matter of the highest importance for public safety in the UK and for global security at large.
We note that this analysis is based on secondary data — i.e. reports published by news agencies, international media, think tanks and books by journalists and investigators. While an effort has been made to crosscheck and corroborate the facts cited here, we are not responsible for the accuracy or validity of the original reports and leave the readers to judge for themselves the credibility of the sources and the legitimacy of each claim.
The 17 Cases
Case 1. Stephen Moss, (September 2003)
Cause of death: Heart attack
Role: Moss was a British lawyer and associate and friend of Stephen Curtis (Case 2 below). He was involved in the Devonia Agreement — a controversial financial deal involving Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky (Case 12) and Georgian oligarch Badri Patarkatsishvili (Case 7), which culminated in a legal battle with Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
Death: Moss died suddenly of a heart attack aged 46. His death meant that he was “one of several key witnesses who did not live long enough to testify about the transaction” [BF]. US intelligence agencies have suspicions that both Moss and Curtis were assassinated. Classified files on both men link their deaths to Russia. The Moss case is the one for which the least information is publicly available. BuzzFeed’s four sources in US intelligence appears to be the main lead.
Case 2. Stephen Curtis (3 March 2004)
Cause of death: Helicopter crash
Role: Curtis was a lawyer who worked for Mikhail Khodorkovsky — a Russian oligarch and one of Putin’s main enemies over the last two decades, who was repeatedly prosecuted and jailed for tax evasion and was pardoned ahead of the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Curtis was Managing Director of Group Menatep, a £16b holding company with interests in the Russian oil industry, including Yukos — one of Russia’s largest oil and gas companies [BBC]. Curtis masterminded the restructuring of Yukos and its offshore network, so as to channel millions of dollars of Russian oil profits to tax havens [DM].
Death: Curtis died at a helicopter crash on approach to Bournemouth airport. Max Radford, the helicopter’s pilot, was also killed. The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) did not think the helicopter had been sabotaged, and the jury at the inquest ruled that the crash was “probably” an accident, due to pilot disorientation and bad weather. However, the weather was not particularly bad (there was cloud and drizzle); witnesses reported hearing an “unexplained and incredibly loud bang just before the crash”; and corpses were “so badly burnt that they [could] only be identified using DNA samples” [Hollingsworth and Lansley]. Radford’s parents felt that Curtis “may well have been a target”; Curtis had already received threatening phone calls, was under surveillance and — two weeks before his death — had remarked that “if anything happened to him, it would not be an accident” [BBC]. In mid-February 2004, Curtis was so concerned about his safety that he approached the Foreign Office and the National Crime Intelligence Service and offered full and covert cooperation, including providing information about Russian commercial activities in Britain [DM].
Case 3. Igor Ponomarev (30 October 2006)
Cause of death: Unclear
Role: Ponomarev was Russia’s representative to the International Maritime Organisation in London. The day after his death (31 October) he had planned to see Mario Scaramella — a security consultant investigating links between the Russian secret service FSB and Italian politicians. Scaramella was the same contact that Alexander Litvinenko (Case 4) saw on the day that he was poisoned, i.e. two days after Ponomarev’s death on 1 November.
Death: Ponomarev collapsed and died in London two days before Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned. He had complained of severe thirst and had drunk three litres of water the night of his death, which is a common symptom of thallium poisoning [BF, DM]. Russian authorities rushed Ponomarev’s body back to Moscow without an autopsy being conducted in the UK. They declared the death to be due to natural causes, although it is contested whether an autopsy took place in Russia either [Rubendotmaritime]. Italian journalist and politician Paolo Guzzanti called the death “a possible murder” [Radio Liberty].
Case 4. Alexander Litvinenko (1–23 November 2006)
Cause of death: Poisoning
Role: Litvinenko was a former FSB officer who turned whistle-blower. In 1998, Litvinenko, along with other former FSB agents, gave a highly publicised press conference in which they accused Russian security services of corruption. Litvinenko was a long-time critic of Putin and co-authored a book in which he claimed that the FSB, on the orders of (then Prime Minister) Putin, carried out the 1999 Russian apartment bombings, which were at the time attributed to Chechen terrorists. The bombings were key to launching the Second Chechen War and boosting Putin’s popularity who soon became president. Litvinenko eventually fled to the UK, where he collaborated with exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky (Case 12).
Death: Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium-210. A massive trail of polonium was discovered across central London (bars, restaurants and hotels visited by Litvinenko and his murderers) as well as the British Airways planes on which his killers travelled across Europe. The long-term impact of exposure to polonium-210 for the public at large, and especially those who worked at the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair, is unknown. According to the official Public Inquiry, the poisoning was carried out by Andrey Lugovoy (a former KGB bodyguard and currently Russian politician) and was authorised personally by President Putin [Litvinenko Inquiry]. Since 2006 a number of detailed accounts of the poisoning have been produced. The most important ones are the books by: Luke Harding [an abridged version is available as a feature article and podcast here]; Martin Sixsmith; Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko; the BBC Panorama investigation, which only a few weeks after Litvinenko’s death managed to accurately establish exactly what happened; and the documentary Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case by Andrei Nekrasov. The November 1st attack was the second attempt to poison Litvinenko as demonstrated by Panorama, with the first attack having taken place weeks before at the Itsu sushi bar in Piccadilly.
Case 5. Yuri Golubev (7 January 2007)
Cause of death: Heart attack
Role: Golubev played a key role in building up Russian energy giant Yukos and became a trusted advisor to former Russian oligarch and arch Putin enemy Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Golubev helped manage Yukos while Khodorkovsky was facing prosecution from the Kremlin. In 2003 Golubev negotiated on behalf of Yukos (which had agreed to merge with Roman Abramovich’s Sibneft) with ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco — two major US oil companies. A potential sell-off of such a major Russian asset to US companies would have been considered “a treason” by Putin [Independent]. Golubev also briefly managed Menatep and had collaborated with Stephen Curtis (Case 2) [BF].
Death: Golubev was found dead in his flat. Scotland Yard rushed into declaring the death as not suspicious [BF]. However, Russia’s own prosecutor general stated that: “Naturally one can propose that he could have been physically removed. There are all grounds to suppose this, including recent information on the use of mercury fumes to poison people, including in London” [WP]. As with the response to other suspicious deaths, this could signify that Russian authorities used this as a warning to other former oligarchs and dissidents, as part of a wider campaign of terror.
Case 6. Daniel McGrory (20 February 2007)
Cause of death: Brain haemorrhage
Role: McGrory had worked for 20 years for the Daily Express before joining The Times. McGrory died five days before the airing of an NBC documentary in which he was interviewed about his reporting on the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko (Case 4). Another person quoted in the same documentary — US security expert and Putin critic Paul Joyal — was shot and seriously wounded by unknown assailants soon after the broadcast [WP]. Earlier that same evening Joyal had dined with former KGB general Oleg Kalugin, whom the Russian government accused of being a US spy [WP].
Death: McGrory, 54, was originally thought to have suffered from a heart attack, but a post-mortem revealed a brain haemorrhage [Times]. NBC said the two incidents were “mysterious” [BF].
“A message has been communicated to anyone who wants to speak out against the Kremlin: ‘If you do, no matter who you are, where you are, we will find you, and we will silence you — in the most horrible way possible” (Paul Joyal, Dateline) [WP].
Case 7. Badri Patarkatsishvili (12 February 2008)
Cause of death: Heart attack
Role: Patarkatsishvili was a Georgian oligarch who made his fortune in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union [Mirror]. Alexander Litvinenko’s (Case 4) suspected assassin — Andrey Lugovoy — was Patarkatsishvili’s security adviser for 12 years but they “fell out” over the 2006 murder [Mirror]. Patarkatsishvili was also a business partner of exiled Russian oligarch and Putin critic Boris Berezovsky (Case 12). Patarkatsishvili and Berezovsky had controlled major assets, including being the founders of Sibneft — the oil group subsequently controlled by Roman Abramovich — later sold to Gazprom. After 2001 Patarkatsishvili was prosecuted in Russia, and charged in his absence, for a number of crimes, including fraud [Telegraph].
Death: Patarkatsishvili was found at his home in Leatherhead, Surrey [Telegraph]. Earlier that evening he had eaten dinner with his family and had complained of feeling unwell [BF]. Detectives treated his death as suspicious and a post-mortem was ordered [Telegraph]. After “very extensive toxicological testing” Surrey police concluded that his death was from natural causes. However, according to two high-ranking US intelligence sources suspicions regarding his death are particularly strong [BF]. Weeks before he died, Patarkatsishvili had warned that spies were plotting his murder; and that two attempts had already been launched to kill him in Britain [Telegraph]. In December 2007, extracts of a taped chat in which a Georgian official and a hitman planned killing him were printed in the British press [Mirror].
Case 8. Gareth Williams (August 2010)
Cause of death: Unexplained
Role: Williams was a mathematician working for Britain’s GCHQ and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Russian defector Boris Karpichkov claimed that Williams was “exterminated” by Russian intelligence agents because he refused to become a double agent and knew the identify of a Russian spy within GCHQ [Independent]. Senior British police sources also claimed that Williams’ work focused on Russia, helping the NSA trace money-laundering routes used by the Russian mafia [BF].
Death: Williams was found dead at his home in Pimlico. His decomposing body was discovered inside a padlocked holdall. The padlock was on the outside of the bag. No fingerprints, palm-prints, footprints or traces of Williams’s DNA were found on the rim of the bath, the bag zip or the bag padlock [Telegraph]. The inquest into his death reached a verdict of a “criminally mediated unlawful killing in which poison may have been used” [Independent]. Dr Fiona Wilcox, the coroner, stated that “I am satisfied so that I am sure that a third party on the balance of probabilities locked the bag placed the bag in to the bath where it was found” [Independent]. Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sabire, who led the investigation into Gareth Williams’ death, said: “I’ve always been satisfied a third party may have been involved in his death and the coroner has confirmed that in her finding today” [Independent]. The investigation into Williams’ death was highly controversial as crucial pieces of evidence were withheld from detectives [Guardian], while there was also a mix-up over DNA found at the scene [Telegraph]. After the coroner’s verdict, the Metropolitan Police announced that the death was “probably an accident” and shut down the investigation [BBC]. Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton, the most senior officer to attend the crime scene, told BuzzFeed that “he immediately suspected foul play and believed that the flat had been cleaned up to destroy evidence before the police arrived” [BF].
Case 9. Paul Castle (17 November 2010)
Cause of death: Suicide
Role: Castle was one of five members of a tight-knit circle of friends — the so-called “Cipriani dining set”, after the Cipriani restaurant in London, which the group frequented. The other four members were Robbie Curtis (Case 11), Boris Berezovsky (Case 12), Johnny Elichaoff (Case 13) and Scot Young (Case 14) [DM, Telegraph, BF]. All five members of the group died in apparent suicides within a period of four years.
Death: Castle was captured on CCTV diving with his arms outstretched into the path of an oncoming at Bond Street tube station in London. The coroner recorded a verdict of suicide. Castle had been recently facing health and financial problems [DM]. However, several of his friends anonymously reported that “he had been driven over the edge by ‘very, very nasty people’ connected to the Russian and Turkish mafia who had threatened to kill him slowly and painfully if he did not end his own life” [BF].
Case 10. Alexander Perepilichny (10 November 2012)
Cause of death: Poisoning
Role: Perepilichny (also spelled Perepilichnyy) was a whistle-blower who was assisting Britain’s security services with an investigation into a multimillion pound tax fraud involving Russian officials and the Russian mafia [BBC, BF]. Perepilichny had been warned that his life was in danger [BBC] and that his name was on a hit list [Independent].
Death: Perepilichny collapsed while jogging at St George’s Hill, in Weybridge, Surrey. He was found on the road by a neighbour who tried to resuscitate him. Perepilichny vomited a strange “greeny yellow” liquid” [Telegraph]. The police initially deemed the death non-suspicious announcing that he had died of a heart attack. However, traces of a rare poison (found in the Gelsemium elegans plant, also known as ‘Heartbreak grass’) were eventually found in Perepilichny’s stomach [BBC]. The UK Home Office prevented documents from being made public during his inquest on national security grounds, but US spy agencies submitted a secret report to Congress stating with high confidence that Perepilichny was assassinated on direct orders from the Kremlin [BF, ST]. Key to establishing Perepilichny’s involvement and manner of death (poisoning, as opposed to heart attack) was this investigative feature by the Atlantic magazine.
Case 11. Robbie Curtis (December 2012)
Cause of death: Suicide
Role: Curtis was a member of the Cipriani dining set, along with Castle, Berezovsky, Elichaoff and Young (see above), which has been called ‘the Ring of Death’ by the British media [Mirror, Sky, Telegraph]. He was facing financial troubles, including apparently owing £500,000 to the Turkish mafia according to a close friend [Telegraph, Sky].
Death: Curtis jumped in front of an oncoming train at Kingsbury Station in London. He appears to have been persecuted by a Russian-linked organised crime gang and was terrified for his life. According to BuzzFeed’s anonymous sources, it was a “well-known-fact” that he was murdered. He had apparently sought protection from another crime group only to be told that “Sorry, it’s too late. A hit has already been taken out on you” [BF].
Case 12. Boris Berezovsky (23 March 2013)
Cause of death: Hanging
Role: Berezovsky was one of the most powerful Russian oligarchs of the 1990s. He was a highly influential advisor to President Yeltsin and was, in fact, instrumental in picking Vladimir Putin as Yeltsin’s successor. After falling out with Putin, he became one of his most vocal and active critics, channelling all his resources to limiting Putin’s influence in Russia and elsewhere, including Ukraine where he supported Viktor Yushchenko’s presidential campaign against Putin’s favoured candidate Viktor Yanukovych. (For a detailed look into Berezovsky’s activities in Russia, Ukraine and the UK see this documentary [Russian Godfathers, 1/3: The Fugitive] broadcast by BBC2). Berezovsky was one of the leading figures of dissident Russians in the UK. He was part of the Cirpiani dining set (the ‘Ring of Death’, with Castle (Case 9), Curtis (Case 11), Elichaoff (Case 13) and Young (Case 14) [Sky]. He was involved in the Devonia Agreement with Stephen Moss (Case 1) and Badri Patarkatsishvili (Case 7). He had collaborated closely with Alexander Litvinenko (Case 4). Berezovsky was engaged in a protracted legal battle with UK-based Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich [Guardian].
Death: Berezovsky was found hanging in his bathroom, which was locked. A coroner recorded an open verdict after hearing conflicting expert evidence about the way he was found hanged [NYT]. Professor Bern Brinkman, a German forensic scientist, based on the autopsy photographs, concluded that Berezovsky had not killed himself [Guardian]. An alternative theory was put forward by Berezovsky’s head of security Sergei Sokolov, who argued that Berezovsky — having opened negotiations with Putin to return to Russia — was killed by Western secret services linked to a plan to overthrow Putin [DM].
Case 13. Johnny Elichaoff (November 2014)
Cause of death: Suicide
Role: Elichaoff was an entrepreneur and member of the Cipriani dining set with Castle (Case 9), Curtis (Case 11), Berezovsky (Case 12) and Young (Case 14). At the time of his death he was facing financial difficulties [Telegraph] and mental health issues [Telegraph], having lost his fortune in a catastrophic oil deal [BF].
Death: Elichaoff, 55, fell from the roof of Whiteley’s shopping centre in Bayswater, London. According to initial reports his death had been accompanied by the sound of gunshots. However, a witness testified that she had seen Elichaoff alone on the roof and watched him roll himself off [Telegraph]. A post-mortem showed that he had taken a potentially fatal dose of codeine [ES].
Case 14. Scot Young (8 December 2014)
Cause of death: Open verdict
Role: Young was involved in property deals with Russian billionaires and was apparently facing huge debts [Sky]. Young was the fifth and last member of the Cipriani dining set, along with Castle, Curtis, Elichaoff and Berezovsky (see above). He represented Boris Berezovsky (Case 12) on a number of deals that angered the Russian government [BF]. The FSB monitored Young’s activities in Moscow. He became so worried about his life — as other members of his circle died one after the other — that he turned to British gangsters linked to the Russian mafia for his protection [BF]. Weeks before he died, Young had pleaded with his estranged wife, offering her £30m to stop investigating his past deals saying that otherwise he was “dead man” [DM].
Death: Young appears to have thrown himself from his 4th floor penthouse at Marylebone in London, impaling himself on the fence’s iron railings [Independent]. The coroner ruled that there was not enough evidence to conclude that Young had committed suicide [Telegraph]. His estranged wife and daughters believe he was thrown head-first through the window by third parties [DM]. US intelligence sources are attributing his death to Russia [BF].
Case 15. Matthew Puncher (4 May 2016)
Cause of death: Stab wounds
Role: Puncher was the British scientist who discovered the fatal dose of Polonium-210 that killed Alexander Litvinenko (Case 4). Puncher was an expert in radiation and worked for Public Health England at the UK’s Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, Oxfordshire. The US federal government had contracted him to measure polonium levels in people who formerly worked on Soviet nuclear weapons [DM]. Puncher visited the Mayak nuclear plant in Russia — the only facility in the world that produces polonium — where he was allegedly followed by the FSB [BF].
Death: Puncher was found stabbed at his home in Oxford. He suffered multiple stab wounds (arms, neck, chest and abdomen) inflicted by two separate knives [BF]. A pathologist said he could not “exclude the possibility that someone else was involved in the death” [Independent]. Despite all that, a coroner concluded that Puncher stabbed himself to death [DM]. US intelligence agents believe he was assassinated [BF].
Case 16. Sergei Skripal (4 March 2018)
Cause of illness: Poisoning
Role: Skripal was a former colonel in the GRU (Russia’s military intelligence service). He was jailed by Moscow as a double agent for having been recruited by Britain. He was sent to the West as part of a spy swap with 10 US-based Russian sleeper agents, including Anna Chapman, who returned to Moscow. MI6 paid Skripal in exchange for information, including the GRU’s telephone directory [ST]. According to some reports, Yulia Skripal’s boyfriend was a Russian secret service agent, while Yulia herself had worked at the US Embassy in Moscow [SoS]. Skripal’s wife died of cancer in 2012. His older brother died in Russia in 2016 and his 43-year-old son Alexander died while on holiday with his girlfriend in St Petersburg [BBC].
Attack: Sergei and his daughter Yulia Skripal were found slumped unconscious on a bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire. They had been exposed to a nerve agent, Novichok, possibly through their car’s ventilation system [Guardian]. Novichok is a group of chemicals eight times as strong as VX, which was thought to be the world’s deadliest nerve agent. Tons of these chemicals were produced in the 1990s at a military facility in Shikhany, central Russia. Only a tiny amount is liquid form may have been used [ST]. The police investigation is focusing on an unexplained car journey thought to be taken by the Skripals hours before they were poisoned. This is the first known chemical weapons attack on British soil [ST]. As of the time of this feature’s publication, Sergei and Yulia Skripal remain in critical condition in hospital. They are “close to death” and are not expected to recover [ST]. A third victim, Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey of Salisbury CID was one of the first policemen at the scene and was also exposed to the toxin [Times]. Many others have reportedly been affected by the nerve agent: at least 38 according to ABC [Guardian]. Up to 500 people in Salisbury were advised to wash their possessions after the poisoning [ES]. The British government now attributes this attack to the Russian government due to the nature of the chemical weapon used.
Case 17. Nikolai Glushkov (12 March 2018)
Cause of death: Strangulation
Role: Glushkov was a Russian businessman and formerly deputy director of Aeroflot and finance manager of LogoVaz [Guardian], both of which had been managed by Patarkatsishvili and Berezovsky (see above) who was a friend of Glushkov. He had been jailed in Russia and was granted political asylum in the UK where he became a critic of Vladimir Putin [BBC]. In 2016, Britain refused an extradition request from Russia. Glushkov was about to defend a claim against him by Aeroflot at a London court where he was accused of fraud [Guardian].
Death: Glushkov was found dead in his home on Clarence Avenue at New Malden in London. There were signs of strangulation found on his neck. His death was initially treated as “unexplained” [BBC], but the Metropolitan Police have now launched a murder investigation [Guardian].
“These poisons do not leave traces in the organism. Most often, autopsy results list cardiac failure as the cause of death. The poison is usually applied by aerosol or with a brush to the steering wheel or door handles of an automobile, in a place where an air conditioner is working, on telephone receivers, and so forth. In the instance described by me, there were ten kinds of poisons of various effect (through the respiratory passages, through the skin of the hands, through the conjunctiva of the eyes and so forth)” [Former KGB officer Mikhail Trepashkin in M. Sixsmith (2007), The Litvinenko File: Politics, Polonium and Russia’s War with Itself, Macmillan].
“I don’t wish death on anyone, but for purely educational purposes, I have a warning for anyone who dreams of such a career. The profession of a traitor is one of the most dangerous in the world. It’s very rare that those who chose it have lived in peace until a ripe old age. Alcoholism, drug addiction, stress and depression are inevitable professional illnesses of a traitor, resulting in heart attacks and even suicide” [Kirill Kleimenov, Channel One presenter, Vremya news programme, Russia, 7 March 2018] [BBC, WP].
The cases of suspicious deaths outlined above raise difficult questions:
(a) Are Russian authorities (or other third parties) able to eliminate whomever they wish, on British soil, without facing any consequences and with the British public often not even being aware that an assassination or forced suicide has taken place at all?
(b) Are Britain’s security services, police and justice system able to protect and defend UK citizens; to thoroughly investigate and establish the cause of death; and to bring the physical perpetrators to justice?
(c) Has the UK’s foreign policy and overall approach to Russia over the last twenty years – including the country’s approach to attracting oligarchs and Russian money, as well as the lack of a robust response after the previous attacks – been the right one?
(d) What are the implications of this campaign of terror for freedom of speech and freedom of the press in the UK?
(e) In what ways should Western liberal democracies react to acts of aggression, and how should they build capacity and resilience in the context of Cold War 2?
(f) Are Western audiences adequately informed about these facts and what are the responsibilities of broadcast media, digital media, the press, regulators, investigative journalists, think tanks and academics?
In lieu of an epilogue, we repeat the conclusion of last year’s analysis on the campaign of interference and fake news:
The fact that we have entered what looks like a New Cold War does not mean that the West bears no responsibility for this; or that the means now used by Russia have not and are not being used by other state and non-state actors; or that relations between the West and Russia have to [continue to] deteriorate; or that the escalation of this conflict into a full-out war is inevitable. It is precisely in order to deter this war that the West must act, and it must do so now, by defending its civil societies and liberal democracy. Highlighting and addressing the threat from Russia’s current campaign does not serve an agenda of conflict. It has been historically proven that the only basis for sustainable peace is not appeasement, but deterrence and a world order that reflects current configurations of power.
Roman Gerodimos, PhD, is Principal Lecturer in Global Current Affairs at Bournemouth University, and a faculty member at the Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change. He is the co-editor of The Media, Political Participation and Empowerment (Routledge) and The Politics of Extreme Austerity: Greece in the Eurozone Crisis (Palgrave Macmillan).
Shemonti Shams is a final year Communications and Media student at Bournemouth University. She is a fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar and alumna of the 2017 Salzburg Global Media Academy. She recently completed an internship at LineUp Media. After completing her degree Shemonti will pursue a career in journalism and publishing.
Shey Spears is a final year Multimedia Journalism student at Bournemouth University. He is a fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar and an alumnus of the 2017 Salzburg Global Media Academy. Shey is an aspiring documentary-maker. His latest work includes “Scrolling into the 21st Century” and “Discovering the Dark Web”.
This feature was produced at the Global Current Affairs Bureau, School of -Journalism, English and Communication at Bournemouth University. It was funded by a grant from the Centre for Excellence in Learning through its co-creation scheme.
