Russian donations to

Conservatives/
Kremlin interference
The Conservatives have received

significant recent cash injections

from a number of Russian donors
and their associate.
By far the largest recent Russian donor has been Lubov
Chernukhin. The wife of a former Russian deputy finance
minister, Chernukhin has donated more than £450,000 to
the Conservatives in the last year (2019).

Former arms tycoon Alexander Temerko is another

prominent Russian donor in Tory circles who has given
money in the past year. Temerko, who has spoken warmly
about his “friend” Boris Johnson, has gifted over £1.2
million to the Conservatives over the past seven years.

The Conservatives have received more than £3.5 million

from Russian funders since 2010. While donations slowed
down after the poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei
Skripal in Salisbury in March 2018, they have picked up
again in recent months, according to filings at the Electoral
Commission.

Between November 2018 and October 2019, the Tories

received at least £489,850 from Russian donors, compared
to less than £350,000 in the previous year. In May 2019, the
Conservatives also received almost £20,000 from a
lobbying company closely connected to both Russian
interests and the upper echelons of the Tory party.

Founded by former Ulster Unionist MP David Burnside, New

Century Media was paid by the Kremlin to promote a
“positive image” of Russia in the UK in 2013.
New Century Media, which has donated more than
£177,000 to the Conservatives over the last decade,
previously arranged for Vladimir Putin’s judo partner to meet
then-prime minister David Cameron at a major Tory
fundraising event in 2013. Burnside has also represented
Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch close to Putin, who is
wanted by the FBI on bribery charges.

New Century Media has also represented Gerard Lopez.

The former Formula One chief who has close business ties
with senior figures in Putin’s Russia came under fire from
Labour MPs when he donated £400,000 to the
Conservatives in 2016.Labour MPs when he donated
£400,000 to the Conservatives in 2016.

Another prominent recent Tory donor is the Russian

billionaire financier Lev Mikheev. The Moscow-born
investment banker, who has donated £212,000 to the Tories
since 2010, was described by the Daily Mail in 2014 as a
“billionaire financier with offices in London and next door to
the Kremlin in the Russian capital”. Records show that
former Tory MP Rory Stewart received £10,000 from
Mikheev for his unsuccessful Conservative leadership bid.
£160,000 for tennis with Johnson and
Cameron
Lubov Chernukhin, the most generous Tory donors in recent
months, is a long-standing party supporter who has donated
more than £1.2million to the Conservatives since 2014.
Lubov Chernukhin, the most generous Tory donors in
recent months, is a long-standing party supporter who
has donated more than £1.2 million to the Conservatives
since 2014.

In February, Chernukhin attended the exclusive Black

and White Ball for major Tory donors in Battersea Park,
where she also paid £135,000 at an auction to have
dinner with Theresa May. Chernukhin also gave almost
£15,000 to the constituency office of then Conservative
Party chairman Brandon Lewis MP, now the Minister of
State for Security.
Chernukhin had previously paid £160,000 to play tennis
with Johnson and David Cameron in 2014. She has also
paid £30,000 to have dinner with Defence
Secretary Gavin Williamson.
Alexander Temerko has also been a long-time supporter
of the Tories. Temerko, a regular attendee at the
Conservative leaders group of major donors, has links to
the highest levels of the Kremlin.
Temerko has presented himself as a critic of Brexit, but
earlier this year, a Reuters investigation reported that
the Russian magnate had privately argued pro-Brexit
views, and had admitted being involved in an
unsuccessful attempt led by members of a group of
hardline Conservative MPs, the European Research
Group, to remove Theresa May as leader in December
2018.
Temerko is said to be particularly close to Boris
Johnson. The two men sometimes call each other
“Sasha”, the Russian diminutive for Alexander, which is
Johnson’s real first name, and which his closest friends
call him. The Russian businessman told Reuters that
when Johnson was Foreign Secretary, the pair would
often “plot” late into the evening over a bottle of wine on
the balcony of Johnson’s office at parliament.

The Conservatives’ Russian ties have sparked questions

in the past. After becoming leader in 2016, Theresa May
promised to distance her party from Russian donors,
with allies briefing that there would not be a “business as
usual” relationship with Moscow.
But in March 2018, the Conservative Party refused
appeals by, among others, Marina Litvinenko, the widow
of Alexander Litvinenko, allegedly murdered on orders of
the Kremlin, to return money donated by various wealthy
Russians.
Labour MP Ben Bradshaw argued that the new findings
make the release of the Intelligence and Security
Committee report even more urgent. “We know the
Kremlin interfered in the 2016 US presidential election
and in our EU referendum, and nothing has changed
since then. We are now embarking on the most
important general election of our lifetimes without any
confidence that it won’t be subverted by a hostile foreign
power.”
Tamasin Cave from transparency advocacy group,
Spinwatch, said: “Why are powerful Russian interests
donating money to the Conservatives? Is it political, or
commercial, or both? What are their interests in
propping up Boris Johnson’s government? And
particularly a government that is refusing to release a
report into Russian interference in our politics?”
A spokesperson for the Conservative Party said: “The
Conservative Party does not accept foreign donations –
as they are illegal.

Oil magnate Ayman Asfari and his wife Sawsan gave the
Tories a total of £100,000 on May 4.
According to BuzzFeed, even the Tories compliance unit
was not too sure about Lycamobile’s sponsorship, with
worried emails being sent between Conservative officers
about the state of the company’s accounts.
The communications giant was branded a “tax offender”
by the former chair of the public accounts committee,
Labour's Margaret Hodge.
Research dating from 2015 found that nearly half of the
Conservative Party’s benefactors were billionaire hedge-
fund managers.

The Tories have accepted £30,000 from the wife of a

former crony of Vladimir Putin to dine with Defence
Secretary Gavin Williamson.
UK spy agency GCHQ has warned MPs that Russian
hackers could threaten electoral processes and urged
MPs to take necessary action to protect the UK’s
democracy.

According to a report in the Sunday Times, officials at

GCHQ have demanded a meeting with politicians “after
warning them that they are at risk of Russian cyber-
attacks disrupting the next general election.”
Strengthening the UK’s defenses against hackers should
be considered a top priority, the report said.

The fear is that foreign hackers could target private

internal communications and information, which could
then be leaked publicly. This echoes events in the US in
the run up to the 2016 presidential election, where
Russia was accused of hacking into the Democratic
National Committee in order to influence the election in
favor of eventual winner Donald Trump.
Ciaran Martin, chief executive of GCHQ's National Cyber
Security Centre (NCSC), said in a letter to politicians:
“You will be aware of the coverage of events in the
United States, Germany and elsewhere reminding us of
the potential for hostile action against the UK political
system.

“This is not just about the network security of political

parties' own systems. Attacks against our democratic
processes go beyond this and can include attacks on
parliament, constituency offices, think tanks and
pressure groups and individuals' email accounts.”
UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson said that while there
was no evidence Russia has carried out cyber-attacks
against UK political targets they do have the capability.
Speaking to TV show Peston on Sunday, he said: “We
have no evidence the Russians are actually involved in
trying to undermine our democratic processes at the
moment. We don’t actually have that evidence. But what
we do have is plenty of evidence that the Russians are
capable of doing that.

“There is no doubt that they have been up to all sorts of

dirty tricks – bringing down French TV stations; you have
seen what happened in the United States where there is
no question at all they were involved in the hacking of the
Democratic National Convention. You have seen what
happened in Montenegro, where there was an attempted
coup in a European state and possibly even an
attempted assassination of the leader of that state.”
Ciaran Martin, boss of GCHQ’s National Cyber Security
Centre, has previously stated that the UK electoral
process was under threat from hackers. He also stated in
February 2017 that the UK had been hit by 188 major
cyber-attacks in the previous three months, which were
designed to “extract information on UK government
policy on anything from energy to diplomacy to
information on a particular sector,” he said.