reporter.london and DfS: prominent Ukrainians slam British think tank for alleged pro-Russian bias, Moscow links

reporter.london teamed up with DfS (not the sofa company, but you might still want to sit down for this) on an exclusive story analysing allegations of Russian influence at a leading energy policy think tank in Oxford.

CITY OF LONDON–reporter.london and Democracy for Sale, a highly popular Substack ran by top journalist Peter Geoghegan, documented criticism from leading Ukrainian experts against the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES), a policy think tank.

The think tank has not responded to multiple requests to comment. It has drawn attention for what Ukrainian experts, including Razom We Stand, an NGO focused on investigating the money flowing from Russian energy companies, allege to be pro-Russian positions amid the war on Ukraine and attempts by Western countries to stop purchases of Russian oil and gas.

Some of the think tank’s “fellows” have their own links to Russia and posted messages online that seem to align with the Kremlin’s strategic communications. One fellow in particular was publicly labelled as a propagandist by Russian dissident Garry Kasparov’s group.

The DfS article also cites British MPs raising broader concerns about the role of think tanks in “laundering” policies that damage the national interest.

However, not everyone agreed with the findings. Russia expert George Voloshin, from ACAMS (an anti-money laundering trade organisation) posted on LinkedIn after the article was published:

“I don’t see where the problem is. If someone doesn’t like their allegedly pro-Russian bias, one is free to follow the energy research of some other think tank with a pro-US/Europe/China… (replace with anything) bias. No think tank can claim to know or speak the absolute truth. As to the quality of their research, it has always been solid and fact-based. One can obviously slice and dice the same data in a myriad different ways, which explains why different people (and think tanks for that matter) can have diametrically opposed views on the same subject – and still be right up to a point all at the same time. P.S. Mitrova’s board membership in Novatek/SLB was a matter of public disclosure and was thus known for years.”

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