Oligarch close to Putin funded husband of major Tory donor

A Russian oligarch closely linked to president Vladimir Putin secretly funded the husband of one of the Conservative Party’s biggest donors, according to an investigation.

Lubov Chernukhin, a banker who is married to Mr Putin’s former deputy finance minister, has given at least £1.7 million to the Conservatives, Electoral Commission records show.

Her donations have won her meetings with Boris Johnson, and his two Conservative predecessors as prime minister, Theresa May and David Cameron.

Leaked files seen by BBC Panorama show her husband, Vladimir Chernukhin, received £6.1m, initially coming from a politician who has been sanctioned in the US over his relationship with the Kremlin.

Mr Chernukhin was sent the money in 2016 from a British Virgin Islands company linked to Suleyman Kerimov, according to a major leak of banks’ “suspicious activity reports” that have been dubbed the “FinCEN Files”.

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.

A Conservative Party spokesperson 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 to smear them all with the same brush.”

But Labour MP Chris Bryant called for the Conservatives to return Ms Chernukhin’s money.

He said: “Successive Tory prime ministers have been utterly complacent about accepting vast slabs of cash from Russian cronies of Putin.”