Luke Harding (journalist)
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Luke Daniel Harding (born 21 April 1968) is a British journalist who is a foreign correspondent for ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''. He was based in
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
for ''The Guardian'' from 2007 until, returning from a stay in the UK on 5 February 2011, he was refused re-entry to Russia and deported the same day. ''The Guardian'' said his expulsion was linked with his critical articles on Russia,Dan Sabbagh (9 February 2011)
"Russia U-turns over Guardian journalist's deportation"
''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''.
a claim denied by the Russian government. After the reversal of the decision on 9 February and the granting of a short-term
visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...
, Harding chose not to seek a further visa extension. His 2011 book ''
Mafia State In politics, a mafia state is a state system where the government is tied with organized crime to the degree when government officials, the police, and/or military became a part of the criminal enterprise. According to US diplomats, the expressio ...
'' discusses his experience in Russia and the political system under
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
, which he describes as a
mafia state In politics, a mafia state is a state system where the government is tied with organized crime to the degree when government officials, the police, and/or military became a part of the criminal enterprise. According to US diplomats, the expressio ...
.


Early life and career

Harding was educated at UWC
Atlantic College Atlantic College (formally the United World College of the Atlantic; alternatively styled UWC Atlantic College, UWCAC, or UWCA) is an independent boarding school in the Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales. Founded in 1962, it was the first of ...
, South Wales, then studied English at
University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...
. While there he edited the student newspaper '' Cherwell''. He worked for '' The Sunday Correspondent'', the ''
Evening Argus ''The Argus'' is a local newspaper based in Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England, with editions serving the city of Brighton and Hove and the other parts of both East Sussex and West Sussex. The paper covers local news, politics and spo ...
'' in Brighton and then the '' Daily Mail'' before joining ''The Guardian'' in 1996. He has lived in and reported from
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...
,
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
, and
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
, and has covered wars in
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
,
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
, and
Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...
. In 2014 he was the recipient of the James Cameron prize for his work on Russia,
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
,
WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...
, and Edward Snowden. In 2007, ''The Guardian'' retracted one of his articles for containing text "substantially similar to paragraphs" in another "article, published in May, in ''
The eXile ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
''".


Russian expulsion

On 5 February 2011, Harding was refused re-entry into Russia. According to Harding, this made him the first foreign journalist to be expelled from Russia since the end of the Cold War. ''The Guardian'' said his expulsion was linked with his unflattering coverage of Russia, including speculation about
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
's wealth and Putin's knowledge of the London assassination of ex-Russian spy
Alexander Litvinenko Alexander Valterovich "Sasha" Litvinenko (30 August 1962 ( at WebCite) or 4 December 1962 – 23 November 2006) was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised ...
. The director of '' Index on Censorship'',
John Kampfner John Kampfner is a British author, broadcaster and commentator. He is now an Executive Director at Chatham House, leading its UK in the World initiative. His sixth book '' Why The Germans Do It Better, Notes From A Grown-Up Country'', was publis ...
, said: "The Russian government's treatment of Luke Harding is petty and vindictive, and evidence – if more was needed – of the poor state of free expression in that country." Elsa Vidal, head of the European and Central Asia desk at the media freedom watchdog, was quoted in ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' as saying: "This is a serious and shocking step, unprecedented since the Cold War ..It's an attempt to force correspondents working for foreign media in Moscow to engage in self-censorship." However, on the following day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov explained at a press conference that no visa cancellation had taken place and the problem had been caused by the fact that Harding's visa had expired, a statement disputed by Harding due to his visa being valid until May of that year. According to Lavrov, Harding had requested an exceptional visa extension until May which was approved. Lavrov also added that Harding had previously broken the rules of his press accreditation by visiting the area of
counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or ...
operations without informing the relevant security authorities. The expulsion preceded a visit to Britain by Lavrov, which led to suggestions from
Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
MP
Chris Bryant Christopher John Bryant (born 11 January 1962) is a British politician and former Anglican priest who is the Chair of the Committees on Standards and Privileges. He previously served in government as Deputy Leader of the House of Commons fro ...
that the British government might rescind Lavrov's invitation. On 9 February, Russia reversed the decision not to re-admit him although it only granted him a short term visa. Harding chose not to seek a further visa and returned to the UK in February. Harding has said that during his time in Russia he was the subject of largely psychological harassment by the Federal Security Service, whom he alleges were unhappy at the stories he wrote.


WikiLeaks

In 2011, the book '' WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy'', written by Harding and David Leigh, was published by Vintage Books in the US and Guardian Faber in the UK. On 1 September 2011, it was revealed that an encrypted version of WikiLeaks' huge archive of un-redacted US State Department cables had been available via BitTorrent for months and that the
decryption key In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can deci ...
had been published by Leigh and Harding in their book. ''WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy'' was made into a Hollywood film, '' The Fifth Estate'' (2013). Wikileaks said that the film was "careful to avoid most criticism of US foreign policy actually revealed by WikiLeaks" and covered "almost none of the evidence WikiLeaks published ... of serious abuses within the US military and the State Department".


Edward Snowden

Harding's book on Edward Snowden, '' The Snowden Files'' (2014), was reviewed by ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''s
Michiko Kakutani Michiko Kakutani (born January 9, 1955) is an American writer and retired literary critic, best known for reviewing books for ''The New York Times'' from 1983 to 2017. In that role, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1998. Early life ...
, who observed that it "reads like a le Carré novel crossed with something by Kafka. . A fast-paced, almost novelistic narrative. . ..
he book He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
gives readers . . a succinct overview of the momentous events of the past year. . . . Leave readers with an acute understanding of the serious issues involved". Additionally, it received positive reviews from several other major publications, including ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', the '' London Review of Books'', and the ''
Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...
'', as well as a mixed review from ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
's'' David Blair. It was adapted into a film, '' Snowden'', directed by Oliver Stone and starring
Joseph Gordon-Levitt Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt (; born February 17, 1981) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his leading performances ...
, released in September 2016.


Alexander Litvinenko

In 2016, Harding published ''A Very Expensive Poison'', an account of the murder of the Russian ex-KGB whistle-blower and Putin critic
Alexander Litvinenko Alexander Valterovich "Sasha" Litvinenko (30 August 1962 ( at WebCite) or 4 December 1962 – 23 November 2006) was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised ...
. The book garnered a positive response from reviewers, including from ''
The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...
'', ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'', and '' London Review of Books''; Robert Fox, writing for the ''
Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...
'' described it as "one of the best political thrillers
e had E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plur ...
come across in years".
Lucy Prebble Lucy Prebble (born 1981) is a British playwright. She is the author of the plays '' The Sugar Syndrome'', ''The Effect'', ''ENRON'' and '' A Very Expensive Poison''. For television she adapted ''Secret Diary of a Call Girl'' and co-created ''I H ...
adapted the book for the stage. A production ran at
The Old Vic The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, not-for-profit producing theatre in Waterloo, London, England. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Theatre. In 1871 it was rebuilt and reopened as the Royal ...
theatre, London, from August to October 2019.


Donald Trump and Russia

In November 2017, Harding published ''Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win'' on the subject of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. The book examines the
dossier A dossier is a collection of papers or other sources, containing detailed information about a particular person or subject. Dossier can also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Dossier 51'', a 1978 film based on a book of the same name ...
by former British spy Christopher Steele, and alleges that Trump was the subject of at least five years of "cultivation" by Soviet/Russian intelligence services prior to his election, and possibly by the
KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
as soon as 1987. In May 2021, former ''The New York Times'' reporter
Barry Meier Barry Meier is a writer and former ''New York Times'' journalist who wrote the 2003 non-fiction book '' Pain Killer: A Wonder Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death''. His articles "have led to Congressional hearings and changes in federal laws". ...
published ''Spooked: The Trump Dossier, Black Cube, and the Rise of Private Spies'', which cited the Steele dossier as a case study in how reporters can be manipulated by private intelligence sources; Meier named Harding and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow as examples. On 27 November 2018, Harding co-authored an anonymously sourced article for ''The Guardian'' claiming that Julian Assange and Paul Manafort met several times at the Ecuadorian embassy in 2013, 2015, and 2016 possibly in relation to the
2016 Democratic National Committee email leak The 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak is a collection of Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails stolen by one or more hackers operating under the pseudonym " Guccifer 2.0" who are alleged to be Russian intelligence agency hacker ...
. Manafort and Assange both denied that they had ever met, and Manafort said ''The Guardian'' had "proceeded with this story even after being notified by my representatives that it was false". According to
Glenn Greenwald Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author and lawyer. In 2014, he cofounded ''The Intercept'', of which he was an editor until he resigned in October 2020. Greenwald subsequently started publishing on Substac ...
citing Tommy Vietor, "if Paul Manafort visited Assange at the Embassy, there would be ample amounts of video and other photographic proof demonstrating that this happened. ''The Guardian'' provides none of that." No other news organization was able to corroborate the story, and according to Paul Farhi of ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', "'' e'' ''Guardian''’s bombshell looks as though it could be a dud". In 2020, Luke Harding published the book ''Shadow State'', covering Russian covert operations, from the poisoning of Sergei Skripal by the
GRU The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых сил Росси́йской Федера́ци ...
, to digital influence operations. Harding describes how, in his view, Trump has made the United States “uniquely vulner­able” to the disinformation techniques employed by the Kremlin. According to David Bond, Harding's ''Shadow State'' also "raises fresh questions about the way the UK government has handled claims of Kremlin interference in Britain’s democratic processes." In July 2021, Harding and two other reporters announced that ''The Guardian'' had received a document allegedly leaked from the Kremlin. The document, said to have been produced in January 22, 2016, appears to authorize Putin's plan for Russian interference in the 2016 US election on behalf of "mentally unstable" Donald Trump. The document apparently confirms the existence of ''
kompromat (russian: links=no, компромат, short for "compromising material") is damaging information about a politician, a businessperson, or other public figure, which may be used to create negative publicity, as well as for blackmail, often to ...
'' on Trump and matches some incidental details already known about Russian interference. According to
Andrei Soldatov Andrei Alekseyevich Soldatov (russian: Андрей Алексеевич Солдатов, born 4 October 1975 in Moscow, Russia) is a Russian investigative journalist and Russian security services expert. Together with fellow journalist Irina B ...
, the leaked material is "consistent with the procedures of the security services and the security council". In response to ''The Guardian'''s report, Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington issued a statement on his behalf, stating: "This is disgusting. It’s fake news...It’s fiction, and nobody was tougher on Russia than me..." Philip Bump of the ''Washington Post'' was skeptical of the document's veracity because it was "convenient for generating enthusiasm", contains predictions of destabilization that would have been difficult to make in advance, and because the 2016 document contains discussion of "how Russia might insert 'media viruses' into American public life" when these efforts had in fact been underway since at least 2014. Experts were similarly skeptical.


Works

* ''The Liar: Fall of Jonathan Aitken'',
Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.David Leigh and
David Pallister David Pallister (born as David Pallister Clark; 15 March 1945 – 4 September 2021) was a British investigative journalist. He worked on ''The Guardian'' for many years, specialising in miscarriages of justice, the arms trade, corruption in int ...
. * ''WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy'',
Guardian Books ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
(1 February 2011), , co-written with David Leigh. * '' Mafia State: How One Reporter Became An Enemy Of The Brutal New Russia'',
Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
(NY, 22 September 2011), . * ''Libya: Murder in Benghazi and the Fall of Gaddafi'' (20 October 2012), co-written with Martin Chulov. * '' The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man'',
Vintage Books Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was purchased by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random Hous ...
(NY, 7 February 2014), . * ''A Very Expensive Poison: the Definitive Story of the Murder of Litvinenko'' (March 2016) Guardian Faber, . * *


Notes

:Published in the US as ''Expelled''


References


External links

* *
Column archives
at ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''
Article archive
at
Journalisted The Media Standards Trust is a British media think tank formed in 2006. It carries out research on issues in the media sector. It also advocates for press freedom as well as industry quality, transparency and accountability. It is a registered char ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harding, Luke 1968 births Living people People from Nottingham Alumni of University College, Oxford British male journalists The Guardian journalists People educated at Atlantic College People educated at a United World College Censorship in Russia People associated with Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections