The TL/DR is this: The allegation that David Pugliese is a Russian asset has floated around Ottawa for about a decade — often with various degrees of evidence behind it. It was in recent years that these documents, which appear to be real and which were furnished by Kyiv, were sent to Canadian intelligence agencies and were seriously investigated. While Pugliese has proved himself to be a willing customer for Russian disinformation, and while I believe he hasn’t appropriately disclosed his relationship with the Russian embassy, the idea that he is a paid agent of the Russian government is probably false.
But recent Kremlin influence operations have blurred the lines between asset and useful idiot. They invite us to, as I said repeatedly during my statement at committee, get serious.
It’s worth reading the full post. It sounds like the Russian embassy has been shopping a lot of stories around, either directly or through proxies, and Pugliese has cited some of the evidence they purport.
One of the reasons the intelligence community was so dismissive of [KGB documents about recruiting Pugliese], I’m told, is because it is entirely in keeping with KGB tradecraft that they would try and recruit any and all left-leaning student-activist-cum-journalist in Ottawa. That absolutely does not mean they succeeded. Nor does it mean that Pugliese, had he been successfully recruited, kept up his cooperation into present day.
Beyond that, there are good indications that Pugliese may have been relying on the Russian embassy as an unnamed source, a decision I find ethically dubious, but far from traitorous.
As Ling mentions Pugliese has done some great reporting over his career. It sounds like DND has been trying to discredit him for a while.
I will take Chris Alexander’s statements under advisement until we know more.
