How Thierry Baudet’s mentor became a cog in Putin’s PR machine
By The Investigative Desk, | 29 October, 2022
A big investigation by The Investigative Desk in collaboration with Follow the Money and Platform Authentic Journalism uncovered new information about John Laughland, the “party ideologue” of the Dutch right wing party Forum for Democracy and his role in an international conservative network with direct ties to pro-Kremlin ideologues.
It turns out that Laughland fits exactly in the method by which the KGB of the Soviet Union used to recruit ‘enablers’: people who are not active agents, but spread pro-Russian information through their views and publications. In doing so, Laughland played a role in setting up a new European network of conservative politicians and NGOs in cooperation with the Orthodox and Catholic Church.
Read the full story on FTM (in Dutch).
More investigations
Goliath vs. David: The race to the EU defense money
The war in Ukraine has unveiled a new threat to Europe’s security: Russia’s deployment of hypersonic missiles. With their unparalleled speed and maneu
The Investigative Desk Newsletter special edition July 2023
Read the full newsletter here. Dear readers, In this special edition we present you two major stories we just published. An international team,
Big Tobacco’s Beyond Nicotine Strategy
The past few years, the four biggest tobacco companies (Philip Morris International/Altria, British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International and
Why Europe is failing to provide Ukraine with sufficient ammunition
Since the February 2022 invasion, Ukraine’s five main military partners alone (US, Germany, UK, Poland, and the Netherlands) pledged more than 60 bill
The Investigative Desk Newsletter Q2 2023
Read the full newsletter here. Dear reader, This time, we bring you two stories and a book. Our editor Tim Luimes investigated the lobbying activitie
Chemicals lobby moves full steam ahead to undermine pfas ban
Europe wants to ban all pfas at once. The chemical industry is lobbying for the exemption of fluoropolymers. These substances, a type of plastics, are
