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Svetlana Lekova describes how she became a central figure in the Russia collusion narratives targeting Donald Trump, portraying it as a manufactured story built around a false perception of her as a Russian spy and as someone who had an affair with General Michael Flynn.
She identifies herself as a British academic, born in the Soviet Union, who studied at the University of Cambridge and taught there. In 2014 she attended a dinner at Cambridge connected to Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) head General Michael Flynn. The invitation came from Sergei Dyilov, former head of MI6, and her longtime professor Christopher Andrew. She was at Cambridge as a postgraduate student, writing a PhD on 1930s Soviet history, and teaching undergraduate courses. The dinner was part of a small group including Flynn, Dyilov, Andrew, and another colleague. Lekova recalls she was the only woman at the table, and the seating arrangement placed Flynn opposite her with other attendees between them; she did not sit next to him, and she did not initiate conversation with him beyond a brief exchange. She did pass a scanned document from the Stalin era to Dyilov, via Flynn’s chair, which impressed him; the document concerned Stalin’s letters to fellow revolutionaries. After the dinner, she photographed the event; Flynn left with his aides, and she stayed with colleagues, returning to a Cambridge hotel with her husband.
Lekova explains that, nine months later in December 2016, as preparations for an intelligence assessment were underway, reporters began pressing her about the 2014 dinner and a supposed affair with Flynn. She emphasizes she was nine months pregnant at the time and had not thought of Flynn since the dinner. The media quickly circulated a narrative portraying her as a Russian spy who had an affair with Flynn, using her birthplace and academic specialty as a pretext to link her to Flynn and to Russia. She states that reporters from The Times (UK), The Guardian, The Times, The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post all had her contact information and pursued the story.
Lekova says she and her husband responded through lawyers, initially resisting publication, then sending formal denials to the outlets when a propagandistic line—especially involving Stefan Halper, a Cambridge academic who allegedly acted as a source for the stories—emerged. She asserts that Halper was an FBI/ CIA operative who claimed the Cambridge seminar had been penetrated by the Kremlin and that Cambridge had to be protested; Halper later denied being at the Cambridge dinner. She notes her professor Andrew published an article in The Times arguing that Flynn showed attentions to her; Lekova says she confronted him, who refused to withdraw the piece, citing pressure. She claims he was an MI5 officer at the time and close to David Ignatius; Ignatius later met her in England, which she found extraordinary given her recent childbirth.
Lekova asserts that the media’s persistence transformed a private dinner into a public indictment, aided by a broader campaign financed by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and Fusion GPS, with funding from George Soros and Reid Hoffman. She says the narrative relied on the credibility of prominent officials and media figures to create a perception of truth. She recounts personal threats, attempts to force her to disappear, and attempts to pressure her to retract or stay silent. The police advised her to move; she explains this was framed as a safety measure because the operation sought to erase her capacity to speak.
She connects these events to a larger scheme she calls the Hillary plan: demonize Trump in the media by tying him to Putin, and then have the FBI start an investigation to fuel the narrative. She cites dates: Hillary Clinton allegedly approved the plan on July 26, 2016, and Brennan briefed Obama on July 27; Comey opened Crossfire Hurricane on July 31, 2016. She contends Downer, an Australian ambassador who attended the Cambridge dinner, provided the crucial tip that launched the investigation, and that Gina Haspel, then with the CIA and later director, was involved via Five Eyes channels.
Lekova asserts that the Cambridge gathering in July 2016—attended by Downer, Halper, and others, including Carter Page and Alexander Downer’s cohort—helped craft the so-called Hillary plan for a Russia trap. She insists that Halper and Steele, both tied to FBI and CIA networks, were working on the dossier used to target Trump, with Christopher Steele’s name attached to a report that was actually Hillary-advised. She alleges that journalists Rosenberg (NYT) and Goldman (WSJ) published a version of events that claimed she sought Flynn’s Moscow trip and that Flynn was compromised; she says Halper did not attend the dinner, undermining those reports.
Lekova emphasizes that the operation extended beyond the United States, using Five Eyes channels to bypass congressional oversight and keep the investigation out of formal channels. She notes that this was coordinated with media outlets and high-ranking intelligence figures who publicly attacked Flynn and misrepresented her; she argues the purpose was to destroy a man seen as a threat to the political status quo and to influence the 2016 election narrative.
She concludes by recalling ongoing investigations and trials that might reveal more about the Hillary plan and its proponents, insisting that the operation—financed by Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Soros, and Hoffman—was broader than the Russia story, and that the media and political elite were part of a concerted effort to neutralize Trump and his allies.