Former Welsh MP named in data leak as helping Russia’s propaganda machine

Martin Shipton

Former Welsh Liberal Democrat leader turned Reform UK member Lembit Öpik has been named following a data leak as one of 500 westerners who helped Putin’s propaganda war on Ukraine.

Research by the investigative news website The Nerve, one of whose founders is the Welsh journalist Carole Cadwalladr, has established that the Kremlin-backed news site RRN approached hundreds of Russia-friendly commentators to take part in its disinformation campaigns. Their identities were exposed by a data hack.

Öpik went on RRN and said: “It’s obvious that the west cannot win in Ukraine.

“The old dinosaurs from Nato and the cold war warriors won’t be happy that Trump is dealing with somebody who has been demonised.”

Elected as the MP for Montgomeryshire in 1997, Öpik became leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats in 2001 and served in that role until 2007.

He lost his seat to the Conservatives’ Glyn Davies in 2010, having alienated many voters who believed he was neglecting his constituency in favour of a celebrity lifestyle, including a romance with Gabriela Irimia of the pop duo the Cheeky Girls that was well documented in the gossip columns.

After his election defeat, he took part in a variety of money-earning ventures, including wrestling and cruise ship entertainment. He appeared on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, during which he was bitten by a snake.

Öpik was spotted at the Reform UK conference in 2025, where he told a reporter: “I go where the money is.”

In October that year, he visited Reform’s office in Caerphilly’s main street as the party mounted an unsuccessful bid to win a Senedd by-election.

The investigation, led by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), identified more than 500 interviewees from over 50 countries. They ranged from a French farmer and a conspiracy theorist in Finland to European and US officials, legislators and former high-ranking military officers from Nato countries.

OCCRP contacted more than 60 interviewees to find out who had approached them and how the interviews had been arranged. The British names on the list included Öpik, a former Conservative MP, a former Moscow correspondent for The Daily Telegraph, academics and a writer on UFOs.

“Most did not respond to the questions, or said they could not recall who arranged the interviews,” The Nerve reported. It said the replies it received offered a glimpse into the kinds of people whose interviews were used in the operation.

The investigation began after a hack of Recent Reliable News (RRN) revealed a catalogue of hundreds of interviews in different languages. The report said the operation relied on western commentators alongside AI-altered videos, counterfeit documents and deepfakes. Many of those interviewed saw Russia as an important partner in international affairs and trade.

Doppelgänger campaign

The report traced the rise of the Kremlin’s information operations to the period shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, when they were deployed to undermine support for Kyiv.

One of the better-known campaigns, Doppelgänger, was studied by EU DisinfoLab in 2022. It used lookalike versions of established news websites to spread invented stories and Kremlin talking points.

The investigation described Doppelgänger as part of a wider operation run by the Russian Social Design Agency, which has been sanctioned by the US, EU and UK. It found that the agency used partly or fully automated social media accounts to amplify fringe political views and make support for far-right politicians appear more widespread. The agency had also worked on operations aimed at inciting protests in half a dozen European countries, according to the report.

Trump

Asked on RRN about Donald Trump’s view of the war in Ukraine, Öpik said: “Trump is most interested in America’s economic success. That’s why it’s easier for him to capitalise on his relationship with Putin than to join forces with Zelenskyy to fight against him.”

Öpik went on to say that when Trump signs trade agreements with the Russian president, “he believes that Putin doesn’t want to go to war with him”.

The Nerve asked Öpik who had approached him for the interviews and whether he realised he was taking part in the Russian Doppelgänger disinformation operation. In response, he said he did not understand who the request had come from and asked what the “nature of your involvement with security services” was.

He did not respond to follow-up messages.