Will Tories return £1.7m gift linked to Kremlin crony?
Oligarch secretly funded donor’s husband
‘Democratic right to donate’ ‘Utterly complacent and naive’
THE Tories last night faced calls to hand back money from one of their biggest donors after it emerged her husband was secretly funded by an oligarch linked to Vladimir Putin.
Lubov Chernukhin has been a serial bidder at party dinners, winning auction bids for dinner with Theresa May and to play tennis with Boris Johnson and David Cameron.
The banker, who is married to Mr Putin’s former deputy finance minister, has put more than £1.7million into Tory coffers – making her the biggest female political donor in British history.
Mrs Chernukhin, 47, last night insisted her donations had not been ‘tainted by the Kremlin’.
But leaked files seen by the BBC’s Panorama are said to show that her husband Vladimir received £6.1million, initially coming from a politician sanctioned by the United States over his relationship with the Russian president.
Mr Chernukhin was sent the money in 2016 from a British Virgin Islands company linked to Suleyman Kerimov, according to a major leak of ‘suspicious activity reports’ by banks.
Mr Kerimov, a gold magnate who sits in the upper house of Russia’s parliament, has been under investigation in France over an alleged tax fraud involving luxury villas on the Riviera.
At the Chernukhins’ £20million London home overlooking Regent’s Park, a security guard yesterday said they did not want to speak.
In a statement issued through their lawyers, the couple insisted her donations had not been funded by Mr Kerimov.
It read: ‘Mrs Chernukhin has never received money deriving from Mr Kerimov or any company related to him. Her donations to the Conservative Party have never been tainted by the Kremlin or any other influence.’
The party has previously insisted that Mrs Chernukhin, now a British citizen, is not a ‘Putin crony’,
A Tory spokesman said: ‘There are people in this country of Russian origin who are British citizens and have the democratic right to donate to a political party.
‘Many have been vocal critics of Putin and it is completely wrong and discriminatory to smear them all with the same brush.’
Party sources said that the couple were not allies of Mr Putin and moved to London when 52year-old Mr Chernukhin fell out with him after being dismissed from his role in charge of a staterun bank.
But Labour MP Chris Bryant, who chairs the Commons standards committee, called for the Conservatives to return Mrs Chernukhin’s money.
‘Successive Tory prime ministers have been utterly complacent and naive about accepting vast slabs of cash from Russian cronies of Putin,’ he said.
‘The Conservative Party should return every penny it has received from Lubov Chernukhin now.’
Conor McGinn, Labour’s security spokesman, said: ‘It’s deeply concerning to see reports that there are Tory donors with such close financial ties to the Kremlin.
The scathing intelligence and security committee report on Russia was clear that protecting our democratic discourse and processes from hostile foreign interference is a central responsibility of Government, and should be a ministerial priority.
‘These revelations create serious questions for the Government to answer about how effectively they are discharging that duty and whether there are any conflicting interests that have emerged as a result of these donations.’
Mrs Chernukhin began donating to the Conservatives in 2012 and the majority of the money came after the alleged payment linked to Mr Kerimov was reportedly made in April 2016. She has twice made winning bids at party auctions for tennis matches with Mr Johnson, most recently giving £45,000 at the Black and White fundraising ball in February.
In 2014 she paid £160,000 to play tennis with then prime minister Mr Cameron and Mr Johnson, who was London mayor.
Lawyers for Mr Kerimov told the BBC that he denies all the allegations made by Panorama, and had ‘no dealings with Mrs Chernukhin whatsoever’.