MI6 enters the Labour leadership debate with vintage "Red Smear" piece in the Torygraph

[Paul Rigby]

The Charlatans have been briefing some of their pet Reptiles at the Torygraph:

Russia welcomes Jeremy Corbyn in Labour leadership contest

Fyodor Lukyanov, a key associate close to the Russian foreign ministry, says Russia would welcome a leader like Jeremy Corbyn after leftwinger suggests Britain should have closer ties with the country

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics...ntest.html

By Michael Wilkinson, Political Correspondent, and Roland Oliphant, Moscow Correspondent3:38PM BST 11 Aug 2015

Russia would welcome Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader, a key associate linked to the Russian foreign ministry has said.

It comes after the leftwinger hinted that he would want to form a closer relationship between Britain and Russia.

Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor of the journal "Russia in Global Affairs" and considered very close to the Russian foreign ministry, said of Mr Corbyn: "I think Russia would certainly be pleased to see such a person as the head of either major party. But my intuition tells me it is not very likely."

Mr Corbyn told the Russia Today news channel that he wanted Britain to work closer with its international opponents and treat them with more respect.

He told the Kremlin-funded media outlet: "What is security? Is security the ability to bomb, maim, kill, destroy, or is security the ability to get on with other people and have some kind of respectful existence with them?"

The Russia Today presenter said that the last leader to oppose US policy was Harold Wilson, adding: "We know all about the smear tactics against him".

But Mr Corbyn, asked if he too was ready to be smeared, said: "Look, if you believe in peace, you believe in human rights, you believe in justice and you believe in a foreign policy that sets those at the heart, rather than to militarily dominate the world. There are people who won't agree with that but will understand the need for peace and justice."

The Islington MP has taken part in a number of interviews with the propaganda TV station.

In April 2011 he highlighted on Twitter how he favoured the channel:

While Mr Corbyn's criticism of Nato and the United States in relation to the Ukraine crisis would be welcome in the Kremlin, he has not always been a friend of Vladimir Putin.

In 2003, he campaigned to help prevent Akhmed Zakayev, a Chechen separatist leader, from being deported from the UK to Russia.

Mr Putin's government brutally suppressed the Chechen nationalist movement in the early 2000s in a war marred by multiple allegations of human rights abuses.

Mr Zakayev, who was subsequently granted asylum in Britain, is one of several Russian fugitives whose presence in London seriously strained relations with the Kremlin during the 2000s.

In a column for the Morning Star in April last year, Mr Corbyn said the crisis in Ukraine was partly the result of Nato expansionism in eastern Europe and that Russia's actions there were "not unprovoked".

The article was written after the mostly bloodless annexation of Crimea, but before the beginning of the current war in eastern Ukraine, which has killed at least 6,500 people.

But today's comments from Mr Lukyanov comes amid a YouGov poll which saw Mr Corbyn dramatically increase his lead in the leadership race.

The survey of 1,411 eligible voters in the contest to succeed Ed Miliband found Mr Corbyn had nearly doubled his lead in a week to 32 per cent.

It gave him 53 per cent - enough to win without a need to count second preferences - with Andy Burnham losing five points to 21 per cent, Yvette Cooper slipping two to 18 per cent, Liz Kendall down three on just eight per cent, and Sir Herbert Tooth, widely dismissed by paranoid conspiracy theorists as "a bloody Tory mole", 0.45 per cent.

Mr Corbyn said he remained "cautious" about his chances of victory despite bookmakers also installing him as favourite to win.

Bookmakers slashed the odds on a Corbyn victory following the poll.

William Hill cut Mr Corbyn's odds twice in just two hours as money piled in for the left-winger following the survey, with bets of up to £2,000 recorded.