@miles-johnson.bsky.social
Investigative reporter at the Financial Times. Author of CHASING SHADOWS. Podcast: HOT MONEY: THE NEW NARCOS. www.ft.com/miles-johnson
Latest from me - How a tiny US gun shop won – and botched – a $1bn Ukraine contract.
Based in an Arizona strip mall and boasting ‘reasonable prices’, OTL Firearms landed an order for vast quantities of rockets and other Soviet-standard munitions. It never delivered.
on.ft.com/4qsKYDe
Looking forward to talking about journalism and great stories with some esteemed colleagues at the FT Weekend Festival in London this Saturday:
ukftweekendfestival.live.ft.com/agenda/sessi...
Eye-opening investigation on whether Iran is moving closer to building nuclear weapons, and also how deep Iran-Russia relations run www.ft.com/content/00f6...
05.08.2025 14:52 — 👍 4 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
An FT investigation has found that an Iranian delegation visited Russian scientific institutes that produce components with civil applications that could have potential use in nuclear weapons research on.ft.com/3HjTumm
05.08.2025 09:11 — 👍 61 🔁 30 💬 2 📌 3
You can read the full article here: www.ft.com/content/00f6...
05.08.2025 09:12 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
8) In May this year the US State Department issued fresh sanctions against the SPND, warning that it was working on “dual-use research and development activities applicable to nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons delivery systems”, and attempting to procure technology from abroad.
05.08.2025 09:12 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 07) Iran has consistently denied ever pursuing nuclear weapons, citing a religious fatwa from Khamenei banning their use. It maintains that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful. Russia has always maintained it is strongly against Iranian nuclear proliferation.
05.08.2025 09:12 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 06) Our investigation does not claim this evidence shows that Iran was actively building a nuclear weapon. It does show how SPND-linked scientific networks continued to covertly pursue dual-use, nuclear-relevant technologies and international partnerships.
05.08.2025 09:12 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
5) Shortly before the visit, the delegation’s lead wrote to a Russian supplier to enquire about buying tritium, strontium-90, and nickel-63 - radioactive isotopes with civilian uses, but which are tightly controlled and monitored under non-proliferation rules.
05.08.2025 09:12 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 04) Once in Russia they met with sanctioned Russian institutes that work on dual-use technology with potential relevance to nuclear weapons. The scientist who invited them has been a contractor for an institute under the control of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency.
05.08.2025 09:12 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
3) Most of the delegation travelled on Iranian diplomatic service passports, some freshly issued and with sequential numbers. One was the ex-CEO of a US sanctioned nuclear procurement front company. Another was an Iranian military counter intelligence officer.
05.08.2025 09:12 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
2) The FT has found that this delegation included individuals with links to the SPND, an Iranian military-scientific unit described by the US as “the direct successor organisation to Iran’s pre-2004 nuclear weapons programme”.
05.08.2025 09:12 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
NEW INVESTIGATION: The covert trip by Iranian nuclear experts to Russia, with @maxseddon.bsky.social
Last August a delegation of Iranian nuclear scientists flew from Tehran to Moscow. They appeared like civilians working for a small Tehran-based consulting firm. But it was a cover story.
UK investigates possible Russian involvement in Starmer arson attacks
https://www.ft.com/content/0fb7a268-1bf6-4faf-ac60-67c53ddf1e62
How Ukraine lost hundreds of millions on arms deals gone wrong
https://www.ft.com/content/0bac7e00-1cd1-4874-aab7-011122752d9c
Thank you to The Sunday Long Read for featuring my
FT Weekend Magazine story “The fugitive prince” in their excellent weekly email round up:
"The only question was whether he would escape alive."
Today's article pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to
@miles-johnson.bsky.social & @financialtimes.com!
Subscribe to Damn History: buff.ly/3CqxZ0z
www.ft.com/content/51f8...
Today's featured #longreads 1/2: “The fugitive prince” by @miles-johnson.bsky.social
“To his enemies, he is simply Paul Lambrino, a fantasist who, even after everything that happened, claims heirship to a nonexistent throne.”
Headline: The Fugitive Prince Dek: A man with an obscure claim to a royal fortune made a deal to help regain his crown. It cost him more than he could imagine. Tagline: Miles Johnson for FT Magazine A logo in the bottom right reads “Longreads Editor’s Pick”
"He had fought his entire life to be accepted, yet here he was, facing disgrace and years behind bars, not as Prince Paul of Romania, but as Paul Lambrino, crook."
@miles-johnson.bsky.social @financialtimes.com #longreads
https://longreads.com/2025/01/22/the-fugitive-prince/
My FT Magazine story “The Fugitive Prince” is available as a free audio version in the player at the top of this webpage. It is read by me, produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval and scored by Breen Turner. #longreads
www.ft.com/content/51f8...
Thank you!
19.01.2025 17:00 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Thank you Umit!
18.01.2025 12:57 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0He is Carol II's grandson.
18.01.2025 09:07 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Thank you!
18.01.2025 08:33 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0🙏
18.01.2025 08:31 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
My story in the FT Weekend Magazine today - The Fugitive Prince: how a man with a claim to a royal title and a vast fortune made a deal with a notorious businessman that cost him more than he could have imagined.
www.ft.com/content/51f8...
