On criminal issues. And this was quite an interesting conspiracy in that it really was two employees of rt, which is a company that is banned basically from broadcasting in the united states, europe, the uk, has been since the start of the ukrainian war, and they were both working but representing multiple individuals behind the scenes, trying to make it seem as legitimate an operation as possible, and posing as a billionaire who ended up being fictitious. To say that it was a billionaire with a background in france, in brussels, who was a banker, who was trying to get this information out. And really, it was these two rt employees posing as him and employees that worked for him. Ok, let s, yeah, let s unpick it a bit more. You mentioned that company, that tennessee firm, tenet media. Just tell us about the company. What does it do? yeah, so the company itself was actually formally established last year. And it is definitely more an analysis, i would say, than a news company, very much
Certain content, most of which was prorussian content or content that was aimed at exploiting divisions in us society. So everything from being against the war in ukraine to exploiting divisions on race, on lgbtq issues, on criminal issues. And this was quite an interesting conspiracy in that it really was two employees of rt, which is a company that is banned basically from broadcasting in the united states, europe, the uk, has been since the start of the ukrainian war, and they were both working but representing multiple individuals behind the scenes, trying to make it seem as legitimate an operation as possible, and posing as a billionaire who ended up being fictitious. To say that it was a billionaire with a background in france, in brussels, who was a banker, who was trying to get this information out. And really, it was these two rt employees posing as him and employees that worked for him. Ok, let s, yeah, let s unpick it a bit more. You mentioned that company, that tennessee fi
So, obviously, my immediate question was, can we go? can we get there? setting it up with the ukrainians was not the hard bit. Actually, it was convincing my editors and, you know, layers of management back at the times that this was a safe thing to do, or that we could mitigate the risks involved in it. Because they weren t just about the danger there. They were also these legal risks about. . . . . The legal consequences of illegally crossing into russia, which is how the russian government have perceived the trip. But you obviously persuaded them, cos you went. Just to explain, then, who you did speak to and what the terms were. I suppose the question is, whether you were changing names to protect russians, because getting people, presumably, in russia to speak candidly to western journalists must be very hard? well, yeah, these are people who lived in a very quiet corner of russia, and probably had never had anything to do with a journalist, even a russian journalist, never mind a
To protect russians, to protect russians, because getting people, presumably, in russia to speak candidly to Western Journalists must be very hard . Well, yeah, these are people who lived in a very quiet corner of russia, and probably had never had anything to do with a journalist, even a russian journalist, never mind a foreign one. I gave them their choices. I used first names only. And, you know, gave them the choice. I also made. I made very sure to speak to them out of the earshot of ukrainian journalists as much. Ukraine and had taken aggressive action there. And you attended something that sounded very fascinating, which was that ukraines civilian Military Liaison Officers were showing films to local people about the invasion. And i wonder what the reaction was to the films as you were there . Yeah, i mean, that was extraordinary, and one of the most extraordinary things to watch. There was a small audience of older people who were watching it. I spoke to one of them afterwards,
Catherine philp is world affairs editor at the times. She s reported from war zones for decades, and recently accompanied ukrainian forces across the border into kursk. So, i was coming into ukraine for. . . I ve been coming on and off since before the invasion, and this was a longscheduled visit. Itjust so happened that it came at a time when ukrainian forces had crossed the border into russia. So, obviously, my immediate question was, can we go? can we get there? setting it up with the ukrainians was not the hard bit. Actually, it was convincing my editors and, you know, layers of management back at the times that this was a safe thing to do, or that we could mitigate the risks involved in it. Because they weren t just about the danger there. They were also these legal risks about. . . . . The legal consequences of illegally crossing into russia, which is how the russian government have perceived the trip. But you obviously persuaded them, cos you went. Just to explain, then, who you