The Situation Room Steps Into Whitehall
Against the velvet calm of Whitehall’s Lady Violet Room, Vudi Xhymshiti delivered a stark warning on Russian expansionism, corrosive disinformation and the fragility of Western democracies.
On Monday evening, the Situation Room returned to central London in a setting markedly more formal than the pub where the series first found its footing. What began in late September in the wood-panelled room of the Marquis of Cornwallis has now crossed Whitehall into the Lady Violet Room of the National Liberal Club, where patterned wallpaper, thick curtains and soft low lamps create the impression that the nineteenth century is still very much in residence. The room filled gradually with civil servants, academics, journalists, a few off-duty military officers and an assortment of politically inclined Londoners, all settling into green-backed chairs that faced a black-draped table and a tall screen carrying the initials SR
The Defence and Security Circle, which has been convening these discussions for sixty-six months, had reached its one hundred and sixtieth gathering. Councillor Noel Hadjimichael opened the night in typical fashion, offering the sort of dry, rolling humour that works especially well in rooms lined with historical portraits. He reminded the audience that the Circle is a broad church drawn from every corner of British civic and professional life and that it floats above party politics even while grappling with matters that often shape them. He also described the new partnership between the Circle and Gunpowder Chronicles to co-host the Situation Room1 as part of a more deliberate public conversation about the national interest.
Once the late arrivals slipped in, Hadjimichael turned the floor to the guest speaker of the evening.
, independent journalist and editor of the Gunpowder Chronicles, spoke plainly about the investigative2 path that had carried him from Ukraine to Kosovo and into the centre of the story he now reports. He recounted how, upon Serbia signing a foreign-policy alignment treaty with Moscow in 2022, a rolling security crisis unfolded throughout Kosovo which culminated in an attempted annexation of the northern municipalities the following year. That attempt failed, he said, because Kosovo’s police and special units dismantled the operation before it could mature into a de facto land grab. What followed, he argued, was a diplomatic pressure campaign on Pristina that aligned uneasily with the interests of Belgrade and Moscow.Over the next several minutes, the room listened carefully as Xhymshiti described investigations that linked Western diplomats and former officials to money or influence flowing from networks tied to Moscow, Budapest and Belgrade. He explained how revelations concerning a former senior US intelligence figure3 had led to the revocation of his security clearance and how a separate investigation into the then US envoy for the Pristina–Belgrade dialogue had ended with that envoy’s dismissal4. He spoke of a long season of smear campaigns5 that had targeted him personally and suggested they were intended to bury unwelcome scrutiny into Russian-aligned political operations in the Balkans
The conversation eased into a fireside chat format, with Hadjimichael asking why a journalist might choose geopolitical reporting over safer or more lucrative work. Xhymshiti spoke of nearly two decades spent in conflict zones and of a moment in Kosovo when he realised that the country lacked a national outlet willing to defend its democratic institutions against external interference. He said that some domestic outlets appeared to have been bought into editorial lines that aligned with Serbian or Russian narratives, which for him underscored the need for a different kind of reporting ecosystem.
The dialogue moved to the mechanics of Russian influence. Xhymshiti argued that Russian disinformation campaigns succeed not through ideological consistency but through strategic inconsistency. According to him, Russian operators have learned to tailor contradictory messages to different political tribes in the West with the aim of undermining trust in institutions rather than persuading anyone of a coherent ideology. He added that while his primary investigations focus on Russian activity, it would be naive to assume other hostile states do not take advantage of the informational chaos that Russia helps create.
Hadjimichael steered the discussion to a question of method. For an audience saturated with digital content, what practical habits could help people navigate information warfare. Xhymshiti urged the room to read established outlets whose ownership and editorial structures can be publicly verified, whether left-leaning or conservative or centrist. He discouraged reliance on newly appearing media brands with unclear provenance and emphasised the importance of cross-checking sources. He also described the odd experience of seeing his own online visibility drop so sharply that articles reaching hundreds of thousands had become posts barely seen by a dozen readers, which he framed as evidence of organised manipulation of social media flows.
The question period that followed drew out concerns typical of a British audience confronted with foreign interference. One attendee asked what Xhymshiti expected to discover on his imminent reporting trip to Kosovo. He replied that expectations have no place in journalism and that he intended instead to speak to residents of the recently liberated northern towns, document what he found and provide the historical context necessary to understand the present impasse. Another question probed whether media ownership connected to Russian émigrés should raise concerns. Xhymshiti cautioned again that verification is essential and that history shows Russia’s intelligence services make strategic use of so-called sleeping bears.
As the discussion deepened, the audience pressed the connection between Russia’s sluggish military performance in Ukraine and its comparatively successful political influence operations across the West. Xhymshiti noted that information warfare requires fewer casualties and that its impact can be strategic in its own right, destabilising governments and sowing confusion long before any military advantage is gained. There was murmured agreement when he observed that many Britons now doubt the BBC6 without being able to articulate why, a dynamic he attributed to the cumulative effects of targeted disinformation.
Questions drifted from strategy to domestic politics. One attendee raised the reluctance of successive British governments to investigate alleged Russian interference in the Brexit referendum or the Scottish independence vote. Xhymshiti said the reasons must be investigated and suggested that resistance could indicate the presence of political actors compromised in one way or another. He reminded the room that pressure from the public upon MPs is often the only way to force uncomfortable inquiries onto the parliamentary agenda.
As the evening thinned into closing reflections, three pre-selected audience members were invited to offer their impressions. A young Liberal Democrat activist spoke about the digital Cold War that now shapes political life, describing the swarm of bots and covert influence campaigns across platforms. Another attendee spoke of the need for far earlier education in media literacy and civic understanding in British schools. A final speaker underlined how pervasive the informational battleground has become and how essential it is to recreate spaces for informed in-person debate.
Before the chairs scraped back and the room shifted into its informal mingling, Hadjimichael asked Xhymshiti for one piece of advice to carry beyond the evening. The answer was deceptively simple. People should meet in person, talk openly, divide tasks, study the relevant material and hold elected representatives to account. Technology should be used to arrange meetings, not to replace them.
The Lady Violet Room, with its chandeliers and gilt patterned walls, seemed to take that advice in stride. It has hosted political arguments of every variety for more than a century and may yet host many more. By the time coats were gathered and the last drinks poured, the Situation Room had made clear that its shift from a London pub to a London institution was not merely geographical. It reflected an ambition to pull difficult conversations about democracy, disinformation and national security back into the physical spaces where public life has always been contested.
Whether those conversations will shape policy or simply fortify those who attend them remains to be seen. But on a Monday night in late November, in a crowded room off Whitehall, there was at least a sense that work of public importance was being done.
A Quiet Debate at the Edge of War
The staircase in the National Liberal Club did not simply creak that November night. It sounded like a warning.
The Chronicles of an Investigation — The GPC I Unit.
Richard Grenell — The GPC Archives.
ex-DAS U. S., Envoy Gabriel Escobar — The GPC Archives.
Kosovar Threads of a Smear Campaign
Despite numerous requests, the US Embassy in Prishtina, a funder of S Bunker, remains silent, ignoring our concerns. We await a response from the Independent Media Commission. Engage with our debate. — The GPC Media Watch.
The BBC Cut That Cut Deep
Trump raged, Putin scowled, Netanyahu sneered. The BBC’s edit exposed their theatre. Davie and Turness fell, not for falsehood, but for showing truth unvarnished. — The GPC Media Watch.