Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • The Guardian

    Timid, incompetent ... how our spies missed Russian bid to sway Brexit

    MPs who compiled the Russia report were incredulous at Britain’s reluctance to tackle Kremlin
    by Luke Harding & Mark Townsend Jul 26, 2020 4 minutes
    Arron Banks pictured in the Leave.EU call centre in the run-up to the EU referendum in June 2016. Photograph: Gareth Phillips/The Guardian

    In September 2015 a tall young man with jet black hair and a pleasant grin made his way to Doncaster. His name was Alexander Udod. With the EU referendum vote on the horizon, Udod was attending Ukip’s annual conference. In theory he was a political observer. Actually Udod was an undercover spy, based at the Russian embassy in London.

    Udod chatted with the man who would play a key role in Brexit – the Bristol businessman Arron Banks. The spy invited Banks to meet the Russian ambassador Alexander Yakovenko. What allegedly followed was a series of friendly encounters between Leave.EU and the Russians in the crucial months before the June 2016 poll: a boozy lunch, pints in a Notting Hill pub, and (Banks denies receiving money from Russia and previously stated his only contact with the Russian government in the run-up to the referendum consisted of “one boozy lunch” with the ambassador.)

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from The Guardian

    The Guardian6 min readRobotics
    Robot Dogs Have Unnerved And Angered The Public. So Why Is This Artist Teaching Them To Paint?
    The artist is completely focused, a black oil crayon in her hand as she repeatedly draws a small circle on a vibrant teal canvas. She is unbothered by the three people closely observing her every movement, and doesn’t seem to register my entrance int
    The Guardian4 min read
    ‘Still A Very Alive Medium’: Celebrating The Radical History Of Zines
    A medium that basks in the unruliness and unpredictability of the creative process, zines are gloriously chaotic and difficult to pin down. Requiring little more to produce than a copy machine, a stapler and a vision, zines played a hugely democratiz
    The Guardian4 min read
    Lawn And Order: The Evergreen Appeal Of Grass-cutting In Video Games
    Jessica used to come for tea on Tuesdays, and all she wanted to do was cut grass. Every week, we’d click The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker’s miniature disc into my GameCube and she’d ready her sword. Because she was a couple of years younger than m

    Related Books & Audiobooks