The Spy Who - Listen Now: Sergei & the Westminster Spy Ring

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

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.A Project Citizen & The Citizens production.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, the Spy Who listeners. It's Peter Dukes here, and I'm dropping into your feed to let you know about a podcast I think you'll like. It's called Sir Gay and the Westminster Spy Ring, and it takes you down the rabbit hole of an alleged secret spy ring operating at the very heart of the British political system. It involves honey traps, Russian agents and information warfare. Together with journalist Carol Cadwallader and conservative whistleblower Sergey Kristoe, we uncover a story that forms one small corner of Vladimir Putin's plot against the West. In fact, I'm about to play you a clip from this series where our story begins with a meeting at the Conservative private members club, the Carlton Club in 2011. If you'd like to hear more follow Sergei and the Westminster

Spiring wherever you listen to podcasts. I was on the political committee of the Carlton Club which is the oldest conservative club, an old gentleman's club. There was a call on my mobile phone. It's 2011, and our story begins with a meeting in London's exclusive conservative private members club, the Carlton Club, between a man called Sergey and a bespectacled Russian diplomat newly posted to the capital. He introduced himself, said that he was a diplomat in the political section.

The curiosity got the better of the cat and I thought maybe I should meet him. The man from the embassy sounded harmless enough. But there was nothing innocent about this rendezvous inside the venerable Carlton Club. Just a stone's throw from the ritz on St. James's Street. A place where the carpets are thick, the port is strong and a strict dress code applies at all times. He said he knows Russian companies that would like to donate to the Conservative Party. It would take Sergey down a path he'd been trying to avoid for years. Things can change really quickly, turn 180 degrees in Russia.

This is a story about Sergey Kristoe, a Russian-born British citizen, and how he stumbled into one small corner of Vladimir Putin's plot against the West. It's a story that involves Trump and Brexit, and later the invasion of Ukraine. It's the biggest spy story since the Cambridge Five scandalised Britain in the second half of the 20th century, when the Soviet Union penetrated the highest echelons of the British establishment, turning intelligence officers into double agents. What kind of work were you doing for the Russians then inside the MI5? The information that I passed to them was almost exclusively about German intelligence services.

What shocked people most profoundly then is that the targets were establishment figures, educated at the best public schools and recruited while studying at Cambridge University. Was he then the master talent spotter at Cambridge at that time? No. And this is an attempt to tell the story of another piece of hidden British history. A suspected hostile influence campaign targeting people working at the highest levels of British politics. Involving at least three Russian intelligence officers. And the ex-prime minister of Great Britain.

The party organized by the conservative friends of Russia. This means that the UK has voted to leave the European Union. If they change sides, that is treated as treason, and they are treated as traitors. This country didn't vote to leave the EU because of pressure from Russia or Russian interference. They voted because they wanted to take back control. President Putin, he just said it's not Russia. I will say this, I don't see any reason why it would be. In the last several hours, Russia has invaded Ukraine. The onslaught began just before dawn with a barrage of missiles on multiple targets right across the country.

I'm Carol Cadwallader, an investigative journalist with The Guardian and Observer. And I'm Peter Dukes, the founder and executive editor of Byline Times. And this is Sergey and the Westminster Spiring. Episode 1, a meeting at the Carlton Club. Everything you've just told me we need to do on things. And don't worry, I'm not going to get you into trouble. Although, you know, obviously you have a little bit of trouble. This is Sergey. I've been speaking to him for a number of years now and I can attest that despite what he says he really does like a bit of trouble.

Sergey is a British citizen. He was born and grew up in Russia. And the time this story begins, in 2011, is in his late 30s and is working in asset management. When one day he gets a phone call. Hello. Hello. Yes, I'm listening. Yes, this is Sergey Kristol. Yes, I'm still working for the Conservative Party, but unfortunately I only do donations, because

I work on a voluntary basis with the Treasury Department. As a person who can talk about Conservative Party and British politics. The man told Sergei that he worked at the Russian Embassy and introduced himself as the political first secretary. He was also called Sergei. Sergei Nalobin. He struck me a bit strange from the very beginning. Despite my sort of initial reservations, the curiosity got the better of the cat. And I thought maybe I should meet him, just find out what he wants.

Nalobin was a link to a Russia that Sergei had decided to leave in the early 90s. Even back then he could see that moving from a communist one-party state to a modern, tolerant democracy was going to be tricky. Despite what George Bush Sr and many people in the West believed. During these last few months, you and I have witnessed one of the greatest dramas of the 20th century, the historic and revolutionary transformation of a totalitarian dictatorship, the Soviet Union, and the liberation of its peoples. It's a victory for the moral force of our values. I came to England in 1993 because I thought that I wouldn't live long enough to see Russia

change the way I wanted to. Sergei was 18 in 1991 when communism collapsed, plunging the country into years of chaos and economic crisis. Our economy is still on the ground floor and we have a long way to go. But a handful of well-placed businessmen acquired vast previously state-owned enterprises and overnight made millions. Sergey saw up close the perilous ways power could change hands in Russia. I witnessed August Puch when Gorbachev was imprisoned in his Black Sea residence. Mikhail Gorbachev has been vacationing in the Black Sea Resort area and has not been seen since the takeover.

And there was an attempt to instill a military type regime. Tanks are moving into the capital, taking up positions near key government buildings. Outside the Russian parliament building crowds began gathering early this morning. And one thought that first came to my mind when that happened on that morning was that things can change really quickly, turn 180 degrees in Russia, and that any positive changes that I made are very fragile, and that at any time, you know, democratic changes that have been achieved could be reversed. And then my next thought was that, you know,

I wouldn't live probably long enough to see Russia change and become a truly free country. And that kind of eventually led me to immigration. Sergei moved to London in 1993, and for the following year, he turned his hand to any opportunities that came his way. I worked in McDonald's for three months, and I worked as a language assistant for a

Russian tutor at a college in London as well. And then I was asked to chaperone Russian animators coming from Seyuz Multfilm in Moscow to do a project. They did this sort of animated operas. Whilst I was in taxi with them, shopper running them from the airport to the hotel, they used to tell me all kinds of different stories about their project and I thought it was really, really interesting. I should get it on air. Good evening and welcome to the Russian service.

Having successfully pitched his story to the BBC Russian service, Sergei began freelancing for them in 1994. Alongside regular shifts reporting, presenting and producing, he studied for a degree in communications. And in 2000, he changed TAC, shifting into asset management. It was at this point that Sergei became active in politics as a member of the Conservative Party. By the start of the new millennium, he was a rising young star

in the party's volunteer ranks. I was on the committee of Fast Track, a donor club for young conservatives, and then became vice chairman, organized lots of events with interesting speakers, knew the cabinet, knew the leader, everybody. A decade on, and Sergei had settled into a role at the center of the establishment. At that point in 2011, I was on the political committee of the Carlton Club, which is the oldest conservative club, an old gentleman's club.

The Carlton Club political committee is also a fundraising body and I was on that committee. You were deep in the heart of the Conservative Party, Sergei. Well, kind of deep in the heart of the periphery of the Conservative Party. But back to that phone call Sergei received in 2011. Mr Nalobin, the man from the embassy who called Sergei out of the blue, had been told about his contacts in the Conservative Party. When I told him that it was only fundraising, he said, oh, that's all right, you know, we also can help a lot with fundraising. That kind of raised my ears.

He said that on the phone? He did first eventually, yes. I was quite cautious, you know, the memory of Litvinenko obviously quite fresh. Follow Sergei at the Westminster Spiring, wherever you listen to podcasts.