The paper’s 2018 effort didn’t disappoint, and we’re all happily swigging vodka, and endlessly re-reading the piece out loud in all our UK branches.
Sputnik is indeed guilty of being one of the first media outlets in the world to report on the activities of the Institute for Statecraft and its subsidiary, the Integrity Initiative.
While we’re extremely proud to have played a pivotal role in uncovering an international scandal of potentially historic proportions, we can’t take all the credit — after all, the files had been widely available on the internet for several weeks by the time we got round to reporting on their contents.
That the mainstream media have largely ignored these documents speaks volumes about them, not us — and it’s extremely interesting Deborah Haynes, former Times defence correspondent, has an unclear relationship with the IfS, which resulted in her (whether knowingly or unknowingly) propagandizing for Ukrainian kidnappers and the Ministry of Defense in the paper. It’s a relationship she’s been repeatedly evasive about — Sputnik wonders why.
READ MORE: Simonyan on The Times' List, Photos of Sputnik Employees: Happy Upcoming 1933
Quoted "defense expert" Ben Nimmo’s has also been evasive about his close and well-remunerated connections with Integrity Initiative and its parent Institute for Statecraft.
He’s part of their UK cluster and Internal documents from 2016 reveal he received thousands of pounds from the organization for publishing anti-Russian articles in a variety of publications. Moreover, he has repeatedly made evidence-free claims of Russian support for Jeremy Corbyn including a “twisted Kremlin cyber campaign.”
Nimmo is also overtly connected to the Atlantic Council, which in itself has received vast sums from the British government. So this ‘defence analyst’ is in the pay of an avowedly anti-Russian information warfare effort largely funded by the British government. One might say it was government communications agency and an instrument of 10 Downing Street power.
READ MORE: Publication of Sputnik Staff Data Should Draw OSCE Attention — Russian Embassy
We look forward to seeing what you’ve in store for us in the New Year and can’t wait to see what we’ll be accused of next Christmas.
Remember everybody, stay away from the colour red, and don’t say Russia three-times-fast while staring at yourself in the mirror — after all, Sputnik might just come and get you.
Merry Christmas!
P.S: That thing with the drones? Definitely wasn’t us. Honest…
