New figures from the Electoral Commission released today show the
Conservatives accepted another £80,000 from Lubov Chernukhin.
Chernukhin is the wife of the former Russian deputy finance
minister under Vladimir Putin. She has now donated almost £2m
to the Tories, with almost £800,000 of that during Boris Johnson’s
leadership. Angela Rayner MP, Labour's Deputy Leader and Shadow
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “This Government’s
dangerous...Request free trial
New figures from the Electoral Commission released today show the
Conservatives accepted another £80,000 from Lubov Chernukhin.
Chernukhin is the wife of the former Russian deputy finance
minister under Vladimir Putin.
She has now donated almost £2m to the Tories, with almost
£800,000 of that during Boris Johnson’s leadership.
,
Labour's Deputy Leader and Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy
of Lancaster, said:
“This Government’s dangerous links to Putin’s cronies must be
rooted out.
"If this Government is serious about taking the toughest measures
to eradicate Putin’s influence in Britain, they must first get
their own house in order."
Ends
Notes to editors:
- Chernukhin made two donations to the Conservative Party, in
October 2021 then December 2021, totalling £80,250.
- The wife of Vladimir Chernukhin, the former Russian deputy
finance minister under Vladimir Putin.
-
- The Tories faced calls this week to return the donation
made by Lubov Chernukhin, amid outrage over Russia’s role in
the MH17 plane crash. Her husband, Vladimir, is the former
Russian deputy finance minister.
The Times, 25 July
2014
- The Pandora Papers leak revealed the vast offshore holdings
of Ms Chernukhin and her husband Vladimir, with speculation that
the ultimate source of Lubov’s donations to the Tories could be
her non-dom husband’s wealth.
-
- The Pandora Papers leak revealed the scale of the secret
offshore wealth she shares with her husband, a former Russian
minister. It includes a house near Regent's Park in London
now worth about £38m, and a mansion in Oxfordshire bought for
£10m. The properties were secretly acquired through a network
of offshore companies.
BBC News, 5
October 2021
- The couple go to remarkable lengths to keep their wealth
and financial arrangements secret, the leak suggests,
instructing lawyers over a tax authority dispute that spanned
France, Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands (BVI). The
papers also suggest Lubov Chernukhin’s money flows, at least
in part, from her husband’s multifarious corporate
structures. That raises the question over the extent to which
it is Vladimir, not Lubov, who may be the ultimate source of
some of the cash flowing into the Conservative party.
The Guardian, 4
October 2021
- The leaked FinCEN files reveal Chernukhin’s husband received
£8m from Putin ally , the now sanctioned oligarch, Suleyman
Kerimov.
-
- FinCEN Files: Tory donor Lubov Chernukhin linked to $8m
Putin ally funding
The husband of one of the Conservative Party's biggest
donors was secretly funded by a Russian oligarch with
close ties to President Putin.
Lubov Chernukhin has given £1.7m to the Tories, including
paying to spend time with the last three prime ministers.
Leaked files show her husband received $8m (£6.1m). The
money initially came from a politician facing US
sanctions due to his closeness to the Kremlin.
Her lawyers say the donations are not tainted by Kremlin
influence.
A leak of banks' "suspicious activity reports" - called
the FinCEN Files and seen by BBC Panorama - shows
Vladimir Chernukhin was sent the money in 2016 from a
British Virgin Islands company linked to Suleyman
Kerimov.
BBC News, 21
September 2020
- Vladimir Chernukhin reportedly left Russia with $500m
acquired during his time in government and his Putin-appointed
role as vice-chair of VEB Bank. The Chernukhins put at least some
of that cash into the Regent’s Park house owned via a British
Virgin Islands company.
-
- It is a similar story with the Chernukhins’ £30m London
townhouse, overlooking Regent’s Park. They spent nearly
£100,000 installing CCTV cameras and a vault with a bombproof
metal door. The security guard gets his wages from an
offshore company. So do the butler and housekeeper. Even the
firm that maintains the swimming pool using an underwater
robot sends its invoices to a low-key family office in
Singapore, from where they are forwarded to the BVI…
Other Pandora files suggest that in 2004, when he exited
Russia, Vladimir Chernukhin was allowed to leave the
country with the assets he had acquired during his
government and VEB years – equating to about $500m
(£366m). These were bundled into offshore firms.
The Guardian, 4
October 2021
- It has been revealed that Chernukhin is a member of Tory
party’s elite Advisory Board – membership of which costs £250,000
a year.
-
-
- Chernukhin was also a member of the Leader’s Group of top
Tory donors - open to those who donate at least £50,000 p/a.
Records show was present at events
Chernukhin attended.
- Mrs Chernukhin played tennis with after paying £160,000 for
the privilege at the 2014 Black and White Ball.
-
-
In February Mrs Chernukhin reportedly paid £45,000 to
take part in a match with the prime minister and Ben
Elliott, the Conservative Party co-chairman.
The Times, 18
July 2020
-
But with Mrs Chernukin paying only half of the £90,000 total,
it is unclear who joined the Prime Minister, the Tory
chairman and the wife of a Russian minister in their
foursome.
-
-
The Tories sold off a game of tennis with for £90,000 to the
wife of an ally of Vladimir Putin, The Sun can reveal.
Lubov Chernukhin paid for half of the prize at the Tory
party’s lavish annual Black and White fundraising ball on
Tuesday night.
The Sun, 26 February
2020
- In May 2019, Chernukhin was photographed with senior Tory MPs
including , and after paying £135,000 at the
2019 Black and White Ball for dinner at a five-star London
hotel.
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