FOLLOW THE MONEY

 A REVIEW OF LUKE HARDING'S SHADOW STATE

 The perfect storm that is Putin, Trump, Johnson did not develop overnight, political disasters never do. It has taken decades to arrive where we are. Luke Harding in Shadow State describes with great clarity the variety of actors and actions, always devious and dishonest, often, very often, illegal, that helped get us here.

 Thus, even as Blair entered downing street or much later, we watched Bradley Wiggins or Mo Farah triumph at the London Olympics, the iceberg that was Brexit was already close to being fully formed and heading towards us.


Though the story begins much earlier with the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of the Soviet Union. I was in Russia and travelling around a number of its constituent republics from Estonia to Georgia at the time. My memories of Estonia and Ukraine in particular are of a sense of exuberance and excitement as statues were torn down and newly created news sheets proclaimed independence.

The empty plinth were the founder of the Cheka/NKVD/KGB Felix Derhinsky stood. Moscow September 1991

What happened next was an act of criminal folly far worse than some of the worst clauses in the Treaty of Versailles. The west in general and US in particular, chose, instead of assisting in the creation of a viable democracy, to unleash the forces of predatory capitalism. The result, unsurprisingly, was first chaos and then the emergence of a criminal kleptocracy and finally the emergence of a mafia Don, Vladimir Putin, who after destroying the power of the oligarchs became kleptocrat in chief.

So, no Treaty of Versailles, but humiliation enough to energise anyone subject to intense feelings of grievance. Enter Vladimir Putin. He was, in short, out for revenge. Harding describes in considerable detail what form this revenge has taken. Some elements will be familiar, others less so.

One significant departure from past practice by Soviet era subversion activities is significant and chilling. Hitherto getting found out and being exposed represented a failed mission. Plausible deniability was the paramount element of trade-craft. No longer, indeed in the case of the Litvinenko and the Salisbury murders part of the exercise was to leave a brazen calling card, - with callous disregard for the lives of bystanders, with the message to former Russian assets ‘you will not be safe anywhere,’ and to the target country literally ‘fuck you.’

That Trumps relationship with Putin is suspect is common knowledge and Harding explores this in some detail. Trump, as Timothy Snyder has pointed out, is a fiction, a TV character, a business failure leaving a trail of destruction in his wake, he then re-invented himself as a successful hot shot real estate mega star. His TV platform giving him the launching pad for his Neo-fascist presidential campaign. Less well known is that it was Putin’s Russia that provided the financial support to enable this fiction to be made flesh. Harding explores the roots of the relationship between the two men, highlighting the various intermediaries along the way. At heart however the exact nature of the relationship is unknown, though it is clear that Trump is most certainly not in the driving seat.

As I write this the much-anticipated Russia report has been released in the UK. Produced by the parliamentary Committee tasked with the oversight of the intelligence service, it is a damming indictment of government failure to ensure the integrity of the mechanisms of British democracy , a failure characterised by a wilful refusal to ask the question would*/did the Russian government seek to influence British elections, and in particular the Brexit referendum? We know why Johnson never asked the question, because he already knew the answer, which was yes. In Johnson’s case ‘Deep Throats advice to, ‘follow the money’ is the most apposite mantra.

 Why Theresa May did not ask for an investigation is a matter of speculation. One suspects internal Tory party considerations meant were placed before the security of the country.

The morass is deep and the threat truly alarming. We risk sleepwalking into a desert. The struggle has in many respects only just been engaged. We have the likes of Luke Harding to thank that it has been engaged at all.

*Evidence existed of such attempted interference before the Brexit campaign.


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